If you've decided to start your online casino business, you surely thought about the basics: finding a reputable online casino software provider, choosing a bundle of games, analyzing available payment methods, getting a gaming license if needed and creating the website.

However, marketing and promotion activities are just as important as all the other steps mentioned. Once you go live, people need to be able to find you.

It can get a bit more complicated to promote an online gambling business, since each country has different policies and regulatory frames when it comes to online casinos. Local regulations must always be checked for the areas you want to target. Here are some of the tools that you can use for advertising your online casino:

Google Ads or Facebook Ads

While many industries are using paid advertising, through Facebook Ads or Google Ads, these are a bit more difficult to approach for promoting online casinos.

Google Ads advertising policies state that if you want to promote your online, real-money casino, you must receive an AdWords certification. You must apply for certification and check for restrictions based on which country/countries you are about to target. Google does not allow gambling-related content in some countries, so make sure to double check before you start to think about investing in a Google Ads campaign.

The advertising policy for online casinos provided by Facebook also comes with restrictions and prior written permission. If you’re looking to promote your online casino on Facebook, whether it’s a real-money or crypto casino, sweepstakes or other betting activities, you must be authorized by Facebook to run ads on the platform. Ads must target people over 18 and follow all applicable laws. Even so, some ads are approved, then rejected, mainly if people hide, block, or report the ad. Therefore, it’s important to specifically follow the legal frame and target the right users.

Focusing on search engine optimization

Online gambling is a niche that contains age-restricted content, so not all classic marketing tools are suitable for promoting an online casino. As we already said, it can get complicated to promote an online gaming site via Facebook Ads or Google Ads.

So, what should you do to have long-term results that actually work while also being cost-effective? One of the most important aspects to consider while putting together a solid marketing plan is optimizing your online casino website. SEO is one of the top methods to grow your online casino by directing organic traffic to your website.

If you’re new to SEO, the concept refers to Search Engine Optimization – creating content on your website and improving the website’s quality to rank higher in search engines like Google or Yahoo. These tools must be used from the beginning of creating your online casino website, but also constantly once your casino is up and running.

Here are some of the best ways to create a SEO strategy that will boost your casino’s ranking in search results.

Publishing gaming-related articles

SEO performance is given by the quality of content that you provide to users, along with the consistency of delivering good quality content. Helpful or entertaining articles posted on your online casino’s blog are the best way to promote your online casinos business by using SEO. The published content must be appealing to both the casino’s users and Google (or other search engines).

The content must always be original and well-written, since Google can easily spot plagiarism and penalize your website. If your online casino is penalized, you’ll see a dramatic drop of your website in search results. Some good examples of articles that are suitable for an online casino blog include articles about games, promotions and bonuses, gaming history, tips on how to improve gaming experience and more.

Doing a proper keyword research

The content that you post on your casino website must show Google the exact niche that your business is about. The right way to do this is by posting content which includes keywords that are relevant to your site. You can identify popular keywords and see what keywords the competition is ranking for by using tools like Google Keyword Tool, SEMrush or Moz.

How are these keywords useful? When users search for a new online casino, they type in Google search bar keywords such as “play online casino games”, “free slot games”, so websites which post content that shows these keywords will appear in search results. To give you an idea of what the most popular keywords for online casinos are, here’s a list of the top 5 gambling-related keywords in the UK:

1. Sports Betting
2. Online Casino
3. Online Sports Betting
4. Online Casinos
5. Online Poker

There is one catch though: these terms are already used a lot by other online casino competitors who are already ranked high in search results. Don’t just target “online casino” or “poker”. It’s almost impossible to compete for those keywords as a beginner. If you’re looking to get ahead of the game, besides using these keywords as a base, you need to incorporate long-tail keywords in your content.

Long-tail keywords are combinations of 3-4 words that have less competition in search results. If you check the Google Keyword tool, you’ll see that keywords such as “play online casino games” have fewer searches than “online casino”, but also, less competition. Even so, many casino players search for these terms as well, meaning that it will be easier for your casino to make it to page one faster if you incorporate these keywords in your content.

Optimize all text across the website

You can help your online casino business rank higher in search engines by using keywords throughout the entire website. Each game can have its own description and rules, while the About Us page must be clear while perfectly describing what your online casino has to offer. Make sure to also remember offering interesting content outside the website: on social media platforms, via sponsored posts, info graphics or video reviews. All of the media that you share should always contain meta descriptions and tags that have also been optimized for search engines’ requirements.

Focus on optimizing for both desktop and mobile devices

Nowadays, it has become essential for any website to be accessible on mobile devices and to work properly on both computers and smartphones. A whopping 70% of people who use the internet do so on a mobile device. Your online casino website should work perfectly on any smartphone and desktop computer, with fast page loading speeds.

A great way to make sure that your online casino business runs properly on mobile devices is to create a dedicated mobile app for both iOS and Android users.

Paid advertising versus SEO for an online casino business

1. One of the top aspects that you should consider while investing in advertising your casino business is that SEO brings higher conversion rates than ads via Facebook or Google. The users who search for casino-related terms are specifically interested in the experience that your online casino has to offer. On the other hand, paid advertising might not always reach the right audience, since it’s more difficult to display gambling ads to the right users.
2. SEO is essential for cutting costs on advertising, since once you rank on the top page of search engines, it goes on for a long period if you maintain it properly. With paid ads, you must spend money constantly to get good results, and it doesn’t always work.
3. Facebook Ads and Google Ads can easily give penalties and stop displaying your ads completely if they’re marked as spam. Since most of these processes are automated, it could take a long time before the ads might be up again. With SEO, the ranking process is automated, and no third parties can interfere with it, so what you give is what you get.