SEO is standard within a variety of marketing strategies across a myriad of industries, but has anyone found themselves outside the gaming and esports industries? There is a non-factor within new marketing verticals like influencer marketing despite its immense potential for impact.
During the latest edition of the Gamactica Podcast, I got a chance to talk about the lack of SEO, or Esports SEO, that exists in the industry with Michael Ashford, CEO of The Game Awards.
In this article, I share some key highlights and insights that are influencing the fate of many esports organizations.
What esports can learn from sports and other industries
“I guess where Esports has been very pioneering there are also a lot of things it can learn from other industries in the same vein,” he said.
“The big controversy is the sports equipment and Esports compared a lot. I’m a big fan of it because sport goes very well with media rights and distribution agreements. They do very well with sponsorship, two things that are absolutely fundamental and critical to the future of Esports. These two things go hand in hand, they ensure that everyone continues to be stable and that everyone wins behind them. Esports as a term have only really been popular for 10 years. Before then you would have been just the OpTic game, people would just type “optics” and their website would show up, their socials were there, everything was great and now there are probably 10,000 companies all calling themselves Esports in some way, and it’s a very different problem.
It doesn’t matter to OpTic, because OpTic is still a prominent name and people keep searching for OpTic on Google. OpTic is still available, but it is important for new activities to come.
“There are three waves of Esports”
You have the first wave which includes all teams, TOs and publishing houses.
The second wave is supporting services, people like us, agencies, creative agencies, sales and talent specialists.
Wave three is all the additional services under this, and this is where that downside comes with the publishers on top and everyone in these waves below waiting to get paid. This is where wave three is so crucial and why we hear stories of these companies trying to get in now that they are very challenged because they don’t use proven techniques that work outside the market to enter the market. They are trying to conform to the market that already exists and you cannot accept an Esports Awards because we own that domain, we own that optimization and we have seven years of history working with Google, YouTube, Amazon, we have also worked with Lexus. All of these brands have given us that domain authority that is very difficult to buy now. ”Said Michael Ashford, CEO of The Game Awards.
The Advantage of Domain Authority in Esports
Ashford goes on to discuss the competitive advantage that domain authority provides them, especially as the esports landscape continues to evolve and grow.
“So if you’re going to hire us as a competitor, you probably don’t want to go against this unless you have a large and realistic search engine budget to go against us. This is where marketing gives you that edge, when you do marketing you put yourself in the consumer’s eye, look at their journey, understand their annoyances, and gain a finer understanding of what they are doing.
Ashford spoke of the difficulties facing new entities, such as Esports teams as they are entering a highly competitive space.
“If you’re a team that just got into this and you’re saying ‘I really want a great sponsorship to come to my door’, like you have to be in their consideration and that’s what it boils down to. If I am shopping for one of the largest companies in the world and I have a budget and I type “esports teams” or “successful esports teams” or “biggest esports teams” on Google, if you are not on that list you are already a outlier from a consideration standpoint because all those other brands have long-term dominance authority, ”he said.
“The OpTics, The FaZe, the DSMs have been doing this for years and will be the first stable thing people will see.”
Despite the proven data, SEO remains on the periphery of the gaming, esports and content creation industries.
While platforms like Twitch struggle to effectively scale the monetization of creators and their platforms, SEO continues to be an absolute must, a conversation critique that escapes these spaces.
The rewards of the game will take place on 11 Decemberth-13th in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will air on platforms such as Twitch and Twitter.
Anthony DiMoro is the CEO of Gamactica. It can be found on Twitter @AnthonyDiMoro.
Sign up for the Search Engine Newsletter Watch for insights into SEO, the search landscape, search marketing, digital marketing, leadership, podcasts, and more.
Join the conversation with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
