LiveCasinoComparer.com: affiliate case study

Today I’m doing a quick affiliate case study with LiveCasinoComparer without the permission of Neil Walker. Actually that isn't true anymore because I had to ask him a question and he said this was cool.  

I was inspired to write this post because I’ve seen so many reports of affiliates tanking on Ahrefs. There are so many that I could easily write about hundreds of iGaming affiliate sites that are absolutely tanking.

I was digging up an SEO clip on the SEO Special on the Weekly News at NEXT.io - The World’s iGaming Community which featured Ivana Flynn along with hosts Nico Jansen and Conor Mulheir. The clip I was digging for is me talking about how not enough affiliate sites really dive deep as a tester.

Of course the first site I thought about that does this is Neil Walker with his Live Casino Comparer site.

Just a quick shoutout to our 2 main sponsors StatsDrone and FTDx, DM me if you want to be a sponsor.

iGaming SEO done right

I was nervous opening up Ahrefs to see if his site was being pushed down and I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was thriving!

Neil is such an expert when it comes to live dealer games, there isn’t another site I’d consider to visit. This is personal branding and company branding amplified. 

What I think is becoming rare of an affiliate site like this one is that it is mainly content where I see more affiliate sites as more product-like. Neil doesn’t have a forum yet but he does have a YouTube presence which is a major differentiator when it comes to comparing this site versus others. 

Sure enough, he told me that the site received a negative SEO attack which started to hurt his rankings but after disavowing these bad links, the site recovered. 

YouTube for the win

Neil’s YouTube channel is flying. 

10.2k subscribers on 372 videos at the time of writing. 

Also close to 2.2 million views as well. 

YouTube is clearly working for him and is definitely helping his brand search.

What could be improved?

Honestly not much. I think Neil is lucky that he’s done an affiliate site the right way.

There are only 2 things I’d even suggest he would consider if he wants to build a bigger moat so he makes it difficult for any other site to challenge him for the top spot in live casino.

1. Forums

2. Podcast

Forums

I think forums are very critical because they add user generated content (UGC) and I believe these social signals will make their way into AI overviews. 

Also, forums represent something more powerful which is the ability to capture the email address of the user.

Aka first party data.

Just like how Bigwinboard® is doing and Casinomeister, a forum would just add a whole new level to the site and give the power in collecting an email so these users are not forgotten. That is, you don’t want them finding you from Google and then forgetting about you. This is the power in first party data.

Podcasting

I think when you do YouTube, you don’t quite need a podcast. I just think it would add another media channel and a means for giving users the ability to follow Neil beyond Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

To be fair, YouTube is already a major step up so a podcast isn’t needed. 

However in saying that, if Neil could pull it off, it would only add to the power and value of this site. 

There you have it, a positive case study of an iGaming affiliate site thriving in the new Google. The key takeaway here isn't just quality, but putting a person as a brand ambassador of the company. Faceless affiliate sites are a thing of the past.