Those “suddenly popular” platforms rarely rely on guesswork or brute-force ad budgets. Instead, their rise is often backed by a clear competitive landscape and actionable strategy. Knowing how others operate, where they fail, and which tactics are gaining traction is what allows platforms to differentiate and strategically position themselves.

But sometimes, we get stuck at this step. So where should we start with high-quality competitor analysis? What indicators should we look at? How can we really use them? So today, Tianchengbao.com editor will continue to talk about the analysis of gambling platform competitors - SEO analysis; first of all,

1. Who should be analyzed? How to determine who is the real opponent?
2. What tools can be used? Is the data you see accurate?
3. After the analysis, what next? How to put it into practice?

Who Are You Really Competing With?

Not every site in your niche is a real competitor. Here's how to identify your true rivals:

1. Search your core keywords on Google and see which sites consistently show up on the first page.
2. Use Ahrefs or SEMrush to plug in your domain or keywords and generate a list of competing domains.
3. Distinguish between direct competitors (platforms) and indirect competitors (evaluators, alliances, anchors, etc.).

Can You See Their Traffic?

Yes. Use SimilarWeb to see the overall traffic source and country distribution, and use Ahrefs to check the natural traffic brought by keywords. Although the data is an estimate, it is enough to judge the trend.

Which Pages Are Worth Studying?

Use Ahrefs' “Top Pages” tool to find which pages bring in the most traffic for your competitors. Then, create content upgrades around similar topics—improve quality, add depth, enhance UX—to outrank them in both traffic and conversions.

After the Analysis: What’s Next?

What Should You Create?

Study keywords your competitors rank for, but also identify: Keywords they’re missing. Long-tail queries with high conversion intent but low competition. This helps you fill content gaps and capture untapped traffic.

What Should You Improve?

Audit competitor pages with: High bounce rates Poor anchor text Messy internal linking Then reverse-engineer their structure and improve your own content layout, UX, and site navigation.

What Links Should You Build?

Disassemble your competitor’s backlink structure to see which ones are purchased and which ones are naturally acquired, so you can develop a backlink strategy that is both safe and within your budget.

But analysis is not the end, it is just the beginning. What can really make the difference is always the speed of implementation and the depth of execution:

1. Short-term tasks: fix technical problems, complete basic content, optimize titles and structures, and make the site's foundation more solid;
2. Mid-term tasks: focus on optimizing conversion routes, filling in keyword and content gaps, systematically building internal links, and improving overall traffic and conversion efficiency;
3. Long-term tasks: Continue to expand content coverage, build a pool of high-quality external links, and constantly polish user paths and experiences, so that platform traffic and brands can truly accumulate and settle.

How often should a competitive analysis be done?

1. Track 3–5 major adversaries per month;
2. Review the industry landscape every quarter;
3. Before launching a new project, you must compare the structure and traffic changes of competing products.

Early screening

Before you start analyzing your gaming competitors, eliminate ineffective targets and focus on the most valuable competitors:

How to Analyze SEO Structure from Multiple Angles

Goal: Build a “Content Matrix” and Capture Traffic in Competitors' Blind Spots

Keyword and Semantic Analysis

Backlink Structure Analysis

Backlinks are the engine of rankings. It’s not just about the number of links, but their quality, growth trends, and link types. Focus on understanding where your competitors' backlinks are coming from.

Technical SEO Analysis

The technical health of a website determines how well your iGaming SEO can perform. Think of this as the foundation—if it's broken, flashy front-end content won't matter.

Recommended tools:

1. Google PageSpeed Insights – to test load speed and Core Web Vitals
2. Screaming Frog – for website structure and technical audit
3. Sitebulb, GTmetrix, or Web.dev – additional optional tools

The inspection includes:

Content Structure and Page Layout Analysis

Don’t underestimate the page structure. Traffic and conversion often differ only in the position of a “guide button”. Pay attention to:

1. What kind of content on the other party's website attracts the most traffic? For example, slot machine guides, gameplay introductions, and event interpretations?
2. Does the content use a structured layout: headings (H1-H3), lists, graphics and text, tables?
3. Do you use CTA (call to action) to make it clear: register, open an account, and receive discounts?
4. Are visual elements (pictures, videos, GIFs, banners) used extensively to enhance readability?
5. Is the page's internal link structure clear? Are there any recommended related pages?

You can use Ahrefs’ “Popular Pages” feature to quickly find their 80/20 pages and then do targeted analysis.

What SEO Tools Should You Use?

Common Pitfalls When Analyzing Competitors in the iGaming Industry

1. Copying Structure or Page Design Blindly

One of the most common mistakes is copying a competitor’s homepage layout, button design, and flow without understanding why they were designed that way. Keep in mind: their structure is based on their audience, traffic flow, and brand tone—not yours.

Tip: Always analyze the intent behind their page logic first, then optimize your own user journey based on your business goals.

2. Ignoring Competitor Traffic Sources and Target Regions

What works in the Indonesian iGaming market might not work—or may even be illegal—in Europe. Keywords that perform well on Google might have zero search volume in the Philippines. If you only judge a site by its appearance and overlook traffic geography or acquisition channels, your strategy could go completely off course.

Tip: Understand where your competitor’s traffic comes from (country/platform), then decide whether their strategies are relevant to you.

3. Only Looking at Pages Without Studying User Behavior

A clean and flashy website doesn’t guarantee user engagement. If the bounce rate is high, session duration is low, and page depth is shallow, the conversion path is broken. If you're only judging by screenshots, you’re likely falling for appearances.

Tip: Use analytics tools to check bounce rate, time on site, and conversion funnels to uncover the real user experience.

4. Overlooking Budget and Operational Scale Differences

If you’re running a new site with a small budget, copying the site structure or ad strategy of a platform burning millions a year on media buying is unrealistic—and risky. It’s like throwing an egg at a stone.

Tip: Be aware of your current stage, budget, and capabilities. Compare yourself with competitors at a similar level.

5. Relying on Only One Analysis Tool

No single tool gives the full picture. For example, SimilarWeb is great for traffic trends, Ahrefs excels at backlink and keyword data, and Screaming Frog is powerful for technical SEO. Using just one will leave major gaps in your research.

Tip: Combine multiple tools based on your analysis goals to get a well-rounded view.

6. Making Gut-Based Decisions Instead of Data-Driven Ones

"I feel like this site must be working well" or "this page looks impressive"—these are common subjective errors. Without bounce rate, keyword rankings, or traffic volume to back it up, all of these assumptions are just guesswork.

Tip: Always validate assumptions with data. Don’t rely on gut feelings.

7. Underestimating Content Quality

Some sites may look outdated or simple but have deeply structured content, tightly targeted keywords, and strong backlink strategies. These “ugly” sites might actually be top performers in rankings.

Tip: Break down the site’s content structure, analyze keyword density, and evaluate semantic coverage—not just visual design.

8. Using Outdated Data or Methods

Traffic is constantly changing. What worked last month may no longer be effective today. If you're using data from a report three months ago to make today’s decisions, you’re already behind.

Tip: Use recent data—ideally from the past 30 to 90 days—to ensure your analysis reflects current performance trends.

How to Turn SEO Analysis into Real-World Results?

SEO content strategy

1. Find the words they didn’t do (semantic gaps);
2. Find out what they write poorly;
3. Find out their pages with the highest conversion rates and upgrade them iteratively.

Fill in keyword blind spots

Don’t just focus on the popular keywords. Those unpopular keywords that “no one uses but there are searches” are your breakthrough points. Use Ahrefs or Semrush to check which long-tail, low-competition, high-conversion search terms your competitors have missed. By incorporating these terms into your content, you can bypass direct conflicts and directly get accurate traffic.

Upgrade popular content

The best-selling pages of competitors are not copied, but they are made into versions with clearer structure and deeper content around the same theme. They wrote about how to play? Then you can add tips, risk warnings, and practical cases. Let search engines and users think: your article is more complete and better looking.

Create a content matrix

Don’t just create a single page of content. If your opponent only creates an “introduction to gameplay”, you can expand it into multiple sub-topics such as “gameplay tips”, “risk avoidance”, “odds comparison”, “suitable for which type of players”, etc., and connect them together to form a complete content closed loop. Not only grab traffic, but also grab recognition.

Precise anchor text chain

Internal links are not placed randomly. Observe how your competitors use keywords to redirect within the site - which words are used as anchor text? Which core pages are linked to? How is the user path designed? You can optimize your internal link structure to allow users to more smoothly transfer from content pages to high-conversion pages, thereby increasing page depth and conversion rate.

Technical structure optimization inspection

Loading speed is slow

If your website loads like a snail, don't expect users to be patient. Compressing large images, merging CSS and JS, and enabling CDN acceleration are basic operations. The goal is simple: the PageSpeed Insights score must be at least 90, otherwise search engines and users will not love you.

Page structure is confusing

Messy URLs and unsystematic title tags will only make search engines and users lost. Unify the URL naming logic, complete the H1 to H3 structure, and make each paragraph have a clear title to guide reading. This is the basic readability and crawler-friendliness.

Not mobile friendly

More than 80% of gambling users come from mobile phones. If your page is misaligned and difficult to zoom in and out on mobile phones, it will directly discourage users. Either use responsive design or make a separate mobile site. Remember to test it on various models, not just on simulators.

Index structure is confusing

You may not have noticed that some pages are not visited by anyone and some are not crawled by spiders. Use Screaming Frog to find duplicate pages, broken links and "island pages", and then re-optimize the internal link structure to improve the overall crawlability and weight distribution of the website.

High bounce rate

If users come in and leave, it is probably not because they don’t want to play, but because the page is too ugly or the action is too slow. What you need to do is to load the first screen quickly + make the visual elements catchy + make the CTA (register/try it) obvious enough to reduce hesitation and increase retention and conversion.

Summary

In the iGaming industry, analysis is ultimately a form of training — learning from your competitors. But you're not analyzing them just to imitate. You're doing it to uncover their strategies, identify what works (and what doesn't), and then develop your own unique approach.

Analyzing competitors is just the first step. The real value lies in transforming their strengths and weaknesses into your own editorial calendar, technical SEO checklist, and brand evolution roadmap.

• SEO is a long game — if you choose the right starting point and act early, you can surpass the competition.
• Technical infrastructure is the foundation — a solid base ensures long-term growth won’t be held back.
• Brand is your moat — retaining and converting traffic comes down to brand trust and recognition.

At TC-Gaming White Label, we stick to a full-service strategy that integrates content, architecture, and SEO to help clients build iGaming platforms that attract and retain long-term traffic. We don’t just deliver websites — we custom design content strategies and page layouts aligned with your target market and user behaviors, all while matching the latest search engine standards. Every element is created to ensure your platform gains sustainable, high-quality traffic. Thanks to our deep understanding of the user journey and conversion psychology in iGaming, TC-Gaming not only builds high-conversion entry points but also designs full-funnel conversion paths that maximize ROI. We also offer a multi-language, multi-template white label iGaming system, developed in collaboration with more than ten native language experts. Unlike basic machine translation, our localization approach ensures your platform is trusted and relatable in competitive markets. Whether you're launching a new platform or upgrading an existing one, TC-Gaming helps you optimize costs and achieve long-term, sustainable growth through expert content planning and technical operations.

Choosing TC-Gaming means choosing a professional, efficient, and trustworthy partner — one that will help your iGaming platform build its own competitive edge.