Non-casino authoritative sites could rank higher.

I've been following a trend I've noticed some time ago when google started the "authoritative" site recognition in the SERP's. It first came to my attention when V7N SEO forum (I'm a member) would rank higher for my targeted keywords? The V7N pages that ranked higher were my signatures in the forums. So, my site that exclusively dedicated to casino content was outranked by a non-casino site based soley on the fact that it was an "authoritative" site.

Here's another example recently reported on the seobook.com site. It's the most extreme case that clearly points to the significance what this really means. http://www.seobook.com/archives/002374.shtml#more

The article talks about Matt Cutts famous Google bog that merely had anchor text "buy cheap viagra", that quickly ranked in the top five spots in google. his site is not about "viagra", "buying", or "cheap".

What does this mean for our casino portals? It simply means that right now it's not "what" is on your site but "where". It could be more feasible to create a non-casino related site. Gain authority in this site and then market casino content for high placement on the search engines. Also, consider that links for non-casino related sites are not only easier to get, but cheaper as well. From an economical point of view there could be something to it.

I'm only considering search engine placement and not player retention. Personally, I think long term dedicated content and natural links are best, but if you see an authoritative site for sale cheap, buy it!

God help us all if there was a flood of high authoritative sites that wanted our peice of google SERPS for the top competative casino related keywords.

But, you know by the time you build a site and get it to be categorized as authoritative (and lots of others as well), google will change their algorithm.

Right now with casino traffic down (and signups w/ deposits very low) I'm just focusing on content and exploring the niche I'm trying to create.
At some point, I'm sure the SEs will swing a site like that back into favor.

But as another thought on the subject... Check whether those sites advertise on adwords. I've noticed sites spending on adwords are seemingly getting better results in the SERPs. Maybe it's in my head, but I'm very scared about the precedent that can set!