Demo games on website bad for SEO

[MitchellHax]

Hello all,

On our casino affiliate website we use the Vegashero plugin to let users play demo games, here is the page: https://toponlinecasinonederland.nl/...asino-spellen/

Half of all games doesn't get index which is obvious because there is no text attached to the game, it would take ages or cost a fortune to write all game info for over 3000+ slots. In my Google search console it also says 1300 indexed pages and 1200 non indexed page. I'm kind of worried, if all these demo games are bad for my overall ranking in Google? Maybe they look at this as spam?
I'm considering removing all games except the most popular ones and write about them.

What do you guys think about this, does it hurt my SEO?

[MJM]

If you are unwilling/able to put unique content on the pages to encourage indexing, then really you must only have them on the website for users to engage with - not to be discovered in search. In that case, I'd noindex them.

[newcustomeroffer]

If the games slow down the site in any way then that could be holding you back potentially.

[chaumi]

There could be n number of reasons why pages are not indexed, but, in the case of these, the most logical is as MJM said. Thin content. Not useful enough for Google to consider serving to a searcher as an answer to their query.

But that's not a definite unless you prove it.

I'd be looking at any other sites that work in a similar way. Do any of those have similarly thin pages that rank? If they do, what are they doing differently on their pages? If nothing, what is it about the site overall that's helping?

Are some of your 1300 indexed pages just having a demo slot on them? If yes, what's different between those and others that don't?

You could try adding written content to a few, and that may prove it one way or the other. But other factors will play a part, so an answer either way is not guaranteed.


But your thoughts are possibly correct that - if they're not indexing because they're thin - then theoretically, they might hurt you overall. Check your pages that do have 'proper' content, are they ranking with no obvious biggish drops anywhere?

If they are, and maintain or improve positions, then (currently) the non-indexed pages are very likely not hurting you. The problem you'd have then would be - could a future algorithm change turn what you have into a negative influence.

The obvious, and most sensible answer, is to make them into more valuable pages. But recognize the issues with that.


*******

PS There's something else to consider.

If I search 'free xxxxx slot to play'....then the answer to my query is simple, right. The slot. Nothing else. No words. Just the slot.

Exactly what you have.

But if 100 other sites put up a free xxxxx slot page before you did, and they were indexed/ranking. then why would anyone even need to know yours existed.

So, you could find there are other sites that just have a slot demo on a page. Indexed. and even ranking. It could be just they did it before you did. Theirs indexed, it might rank. In theory, yours is then just duplicate content 'spamming' the internet - a good enough reason for G not to index it.

[MitchellHax]

I think I will just remove all demo games and just add optimized reviews for slots 1 by 1, I think even 10 of the popular videoslots will do better than 3k of spammy links with no content.

[wonderpunter]

Well i deleted thousands of pages which didn't even have demos.. all hand written, but few searches.. ultimately many pages with no real value will catch up to you.. the unhelpful content algo seems to take care of these now

[CasinoTroll]

I would also suggest to remove those "extra Demo Play" for sites which don't have any or thin content on it.

I tried the same with my pages and added a Demo Play version to it - but with (more or less) enough Content on it. They all got indexed after a while.

Maybe try to focus on the best like 10 or 20 Slot Pages, add like 1000 words Content to it and let the Demo Play on it. Seems to work better than a "spammy" approach with just the Demo Play on it.

[baldidiot]

If I search 'free xxxxx slot to play'....then the answer to my query is simple, right. The slot. Nothing else. No words. Just the slot.

Exactly what you have.

But if 100 other sites put up a free xxxxx slot page before you did, and they were indexed/ranking. then why would anyone even need to know yours existed.

To me this is one of the most ignored parts of search: why would google show people your page for the query.

You have a demo slot. So do 1000 other sites. There's nothing special about it. The fact that it's your site means something to you but google doesn't give a monkeys about you (not to be harsh but it's true).

[Snowman]

To me this is one of the most ignored parts of search: why would google show people your page for the query.

You have a demo slot. So do 1000 other sites. There's nothing special about it. The fact that it's your site means something to you but google doesn't give a monkeys about you (not to be harsh but it's true).

Strong agree with the bolded.

With regards the original post. I haven't looked too closely at the site as a whole but if the 1,200 non indexed pages account for a significant proportion of the site then, yes, they're likely hurting you. As per wonderpunter above "ultimately many pages with no real value will catch up to you." I strongly agree with this, too, and more now than ever before.

Demo games can provide some limited benefit if they're regularly getting traffic (from search or from internal links) and visitors are spending time playing them. But, in my experience, they're not the best source of traffic in terms of either volume of value.

[Slotsjudge]

Try not using a plugin. We have tons of demo games on our website, but they are indexing just fine.

[legalsportsbooks]

After checking your demo games pages, well it is not surprise that they are not indexed or ranking, it's literally just the game.. No content, no optimization.. There are tons of competitors pages using the demo game and having content built around the focus keyword, you don't add any value for google.

[bpmee]

Like others have said, thin content could be the issue.

You're also up against the reality of trying to create 3000 useful slot review pages in order to get indexed. I'm not sure the big sites would attempt that. Any large catalog is likely populated with user reviews, data they've gathered automatically, or some custom classification system that beefs up the page.

There are ways to do this, but it's not really practical until you actually need all these pages.

I would prioritize and review the top 30 slots. Create an outline (or template) to structure your review. Then you or a writer should fill in all the details. Use a database to store data that doesn't change much, like the game's maker, min and max bet, payouts, etc.

If the reviews are starting to sound like each other, find ways to customize them beyond the basics.

Another option is to categorize the slots and provide multiple demos/reviews on the same page (if possible). Maybe an AJAX call or something to allow the user to select different games? You'll do less writing and research on a smaller set of pages. The user still gets to play with different games.

Whether you noindex the remaining ~2960 pages is a judgment call. You could always noindex now and release later when they're in better shape. You might just leave them alone.

I suspect Google penalizes sites with thin pages when the site is predominantly thin. They probably just ignore thin pages on other sites. You'll find many e-commerce sites with thin pages once you get into the nether regions of the site. Oddball parts, products, or other items will all have the same template and 2 sentence description. They won't rank, but they probably don't hurt either.

Good luck!

[Nicole Goodwin]

I thought that demo versions increase users' time on the site quite well, isn`t it?

[chaumi]

I thought that demo versions increase users' time on the site quite well, isn`t it?

That may well be. But not much use if the page isn't indexed and no one finds it.

[bpmee]

That's one factor. The other is indexable text content.

The vast majority of top ranking gambling pages nowadays are fairly verbose and expansive discussions of gambling topics. Even the most mundane things now get a bit of content vomit.

At this point it's better to provide some text to the user, particularly for those who are visually impaired.

Another thing the OP should consider: their site's overall authority. If it's not well linked, those pages won't see the light of day.

[DaftDog]

If you are unwilling/able to put unique content on the pages to encourage indexing, then really you must only have them on the website for users to engage with - not to be discovered in search. In that case, I'd noindex them.

Create a Vegas Hero lobby page to display these games. Add written content to this page so that it can be indexed. Also, as stated above, no-index all your individual demo game pages. This can easily be achieved by using an SEO plugin.

Google will not penalise you for having loads of no-index pages that it knows have thin content. You are not trying to spam Google by doing this.

[petimi]

Hi all,
VegasHero dev here...

I thought I jump in to provide some advice on best practices using our plugin.
We always encourage to add unique content, ideally 500+ words to each game post, customize the post titles, etc.
Also many people choose the workflow to only publish the posts that they prepared the content for and/or leave the rest noindexed by default.
It's up to preference and your site's content strategy.

My preferred workflow is:
- import all games and leave them published, so site visitors can play them from the lobby, this will increase engagement, time spent on site metrics
- set all game posts to noindex by default (you can use Yoast or similar SEO plugin)
- add copy to 20-30 game reviews at least, tweak the meta titles, description to make it custom
- turn the noindex off for the posts that I have added content
- change the publish date of these to more recent to make them show first in the lobby

Importing VegasHero demo slots gives you a good base and structure to start creating content and meant to save you time looking up and adding game iframe codes. That's the real purpose of the plugin. It won't make your site an overnight success with search engines, that takes content and customization.

There's an upcoming release for the VegasHero plugin with the option to import the slot posts in "Draft" status. This will enable an easier workflow for those who want to focus on content creation first.

[IWcasino]

Examine the game pages in GSC - are they properly indexable? What appears in the live test page preview? do you get the same content for both the desktop and the mobile version (remember, Google prioritises crawling with the mobile user agent these days)? Sometimes, even casino operators have this issue - due to a CMS they use, games are either displayed as an iframe or via a Javascript link which cannot even be crawled properly. Also, of course it would be much better to not just have the game demo itself b8ut some kind of description, some info about the game - something people would find useful if they were interested in choosing a game to play. Having games on the site per se does not hurt anyone, it's actually your chance to catch some low hanging fruit if anybody searches for any specific game, then if the demo game suggests playing for real money that could push your visitors to convert better

[casinomagician]

Maybe try to write some generic text with dynamically changed placeholders based on your database data.

Something like: This slot machine is echo $popularity and have echo $countOfReels and echo $countOfWinningLines etc. . And put game inside that page.

[Holdvigsen]

We have been thinking of creating game pages, were customers can try new or classic slots. Creating landingpages with a mix of text and info etc. But I have heard, I do not know if this is true, that the gamedevelopers in general do not really like this form of content. Does anyone in here have an opinion on that?