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Bodog’s Battle of the Brand

Early last week, Bodog Entertainment lost control of over 3000 domain names, including bodog.com due to a default judgment in a patent infringement case. I’m not going to delve into the specifics involving the suit, or the potential ramifications to the web as whole, because that has already been covered in great detail in other places. 

Instead, I think there is some great value in taking the time to look at the SEO implications of last week’s domain seizure. In terms of organic search, Bodog has been the 800lb Gorilla for quite some time. Not only did they dominate the SERPS for popular generic gambling phrases, they also enjoyed an extremely high level of search traffic from branded terms. Even to the point that Google returns the word “bodog” as a related search for “poker” and “online poker.”

Now, if you’re new to the SEO game, it’s important to understand that getting to a point where the world’s largest search engine thinks your brand is synonymous for the two most coveted generic phrases within your space is pretty much the equivalent of reaching SEO Nirvana.  Obviously, the volume of search traffic being in that type of position produces has a positive impact on the bottom line.  But the real question is will the loss of that traffic be as devastating to Bodog as many people are suggesting? 

For many other companies in Bodog’s space, I’d say the answer would be an absolute yes. But Bodog has a huge advantage over everyone else, because no one understands how to build and maintain a brand better than they do. Bodog is much more than an online gambling company. They are a digital entertainment company that has successfully established their brand in several different verticals in an extremely short period of time. And they also have an incredible understanding of how to leverage the web.

While they may have lost temporary control of their branded domain names, the plaintiff in the case can’t seize control all the other places on the web where their brand is deeply entrenched.  (MySpace,  YouTube,  Flickr,  etc.)

All of that, combined with an extremely proactive PR team who jumped out in front of the story so that it could be leveraged in their favor has put them in a position that will make it fairly easy for them to weather the storm.

In just a little over a week, Bodog has been able to establish over 43,000 links to their new domain.

That has helped put them back in the top 20 for the term “bodog” despite the fact that Google hasn’t even come close to purging all the pages from the original domain, and dozens of opportunistic affiliate spammers are coming out of the woodwork trying to rank for Bodog’s name. 

Within the next couple of weeks, I think you’ll see Bodog regain most of their branded SERPS, and then generic phrases will begin coming back as well.  It just isn’t possible to suppress a brand with the level of momentum Bodog has for very long.

 

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