Once upon a time, the grass was greener, the sky was bluer, and SEO came down to how many keywords you could stuff into one page.
Okay, I am oversimplifying – but not by much. Gargantuan word counts, the same keywords repeated over and over in each paragraph, white text on a white background, dozens of backlinks from shady sites (but with the right anchor text), minimum actual value – and your site was ranking on Google, while you proudly proclaim yourself an SEO expert.
There was no real connection between SEO and PR, especially for SEO affiliates. Still, some affiliates prefer to remain a faceless intermediary between a casino or a sportsbook and a player. And that approach can be viable. If you have traffic and conversions, you do not really need a public image or branded queries on Google.
The catch is that pulling this off without a brand is getting harder and harder.
Google's new reality
Money has turned iGaming into one of the most competitive industries out there when it comes to tussling for the online user. Google roll out updates non-stop, and the old techniques do not work anymore. SEO has turned from a bag of tricks into a holistic complex of measures and tactics. But we are not going to talk here about the technical side, schema markup, parasite SEO or black-hat techniques.
In 2014, Google introduced the acronym E-A-T into their Search Quality Rater Guidelines, which in 2022 became E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. While this is not a direct ranking factor, it is a composite metric of key importance for how Google evaluates the quality, reliability and usefulness of content.
The algorithm estimates not only the site and its backlinks, but also the brand's digital footprint and external signals. Where is the brand mentioned? In what context? Who speaks on the brand's behalf? Can this expertise be verified?
This is exactly what digital PR can do. In other words, PR now has a direct connection to SEO. Mentions show search engines and users that you are a real brand, not some made-up entity shouting it is "one of the market leaders." Quotes from your team on third-party sites build trust and demonstrate the company's expertise. Regular media appearances boost brand awareness.
Make yourself visible!
Here are some examples of what we do at SEOBrothers to grow the CasinoCanada and MightyTips brands that we operate.
For both brands, we have newsrooms on Mynewsdesk where we publish press releases about new partnerships, product launches, public appearances and industry awards or nominations. On top of getting indexed by Google, these press releases also go out to journalists and media included in our distribution list or subscribed to relevant tags.
There must be something real and palpable behind your PR
For priority press releases, we also bring in the GameOn PR agency. We have been working with them for quite a while now, and their distribution model delivers decent industry media pick-up. We fly our experts to the biggest European iGaming conferences as panel speakers or moderators. We give interviews and write articles (like this one, for instance) for industry publications.
Last year, we ran an exclusive interview with Italian football living legend Andrea Pirlo for MightyTips. Since MightyTips specialises in sports betting and football, it was a perfect topical match.
Now, we're working to boost CasinoCanada's digital expertise and authority so that Google stops seeing it as just a commercial affiliate site and understands that our ratings of Canadian casinos aren't pulled out of thin air, but put together by a team that knows the subject inside out.
To that end, we have started publishing expert research and analytics on the Canadian iGaming market. One piece is already out; the second one is about to drop.
Just one thing…
There must be something real and palpable behind your PR. Sure, if you are not playing the long game and are not looking to build a brand, you can throw in some money at promotion, grab attention and traffic. But if your product is hollow, if there is no real value for the player, if it is clunky and barely works, users will not stick around and will be gone fast without constant cash injections.
Do not confuse digital PR with paid guest posts and link buying. A guest post is about link-building – its job is to pass authority from the donor site to yours. Digital PR solves a much wider set of problems, although it can generate links too.
And do not chase volume here. One placement in an industry-specific outlet, in the right language, in the right thematic environment and context, will deliver more than dozens of reposts and mentions scattered across random sites. The same goes for link building, by the way.
Digital PR on its own does not guarantee growth. It may not bring in new players or partners directly. But it strengthens the brand's SEO foundation, builds trust, and helps you show up in AI Overviews and LLM responses.
And do not despair if your site's rankings are not climbing. Google's SERPs are so volatile these days that holding your positions while others crumble is already a win.