Hello and welcome to the I game and SEO show. This is episode 3 and today we decided to change things up a little bit.

Just to get away from just myself talking about SEO and my team and I’ve got a guest with me, Timothy Malmush Ganache. Welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, pleasure. Good to see you. Just to give a bit of a background, I’ve been following Timothy on LinkedIn for a few months now. The algo, one of the posts came up on my algorithm and it was about black hat SEO and parasites and canonicals and I thought this guy is quite interesting. I’m going to follow him and then over the course of the next few months there was quite a lot of in-depth posts about i gaming and blackhat SEO in general. So, I decided Timothy would be a great guest to actually get on the show. Maybe pick his mind a wee bit and get some ideas about what’s working, what’s not, and why Google seems to be broken, I guess.

So Timothy, over to you. Maybe if you could give us a quick introduction about yourself, your background.

Yeah, sure. I started in iGaming in 2005 actually right out of high school back in Israel. I started as a casino support — casino, bingo, poker — and then I got promoted to become an affiliate manager.

This is like, 2006 I get promoted. 2007–08 I decide to quit. I’m going to try starting my own thing. If it doesn’t work, I’ll go back to school. It did work. Sold my network of sites to Gaming Innovation Group back in 200… is it 16? Man, it’s a long time ago. And joined them as director of SEO and I was like employee five or six and it grew to like I swear 800 people.

Wow.

And it got a little too politically correct for me. So I like the startup feel and so I quit, started my own thing and then had some kids and back in November before then even 2024 I decided okay I need a break from this. But I get restless, I get bored so I write some articles because it’s still intriguing and if you want to stay in SEO you have to keep updated or it’s really hard to get back into it.

Yeah, absolutely. That’s really helpful.

Do you think Google’s state at the moment seems to be broken for certain SERPs?

Yeah, it does change over time. But I feel obviously you’ve been in the game for a long time, same as me. You do see a lot of things like history keeps repeating itself when it comes to certain tactics. Google changes some things and sites tank and get deranked and then they’re all at something else.

I feel like at the moment they’re too distracted by the AI race to actually pay attention to the basics and a lot of black hat tactics are actually getting away with murder at the moment.

Yeah. This is old school stuff. It’s like Google has devolved trying to automate everything and their AI is not keeping up. That’s how it feels. Why would parasites work now when it stopped working like 10 years ago?

The same with canonicals and stuff — that was never as effective as it is today.

Exactly. So I guess we agree on this point that Google’s state at the moment seems to be broken for certain SERPs, especially when it comes to casino, sportsbooks and all the competitive ones.

Yeah. I haven’t seen this at the same scale in other markets.

Do you think black hat websites are sticking longer at the moment or is it churn and burn?

It’s churn and burn. Basically you have the drop domain first of all, if that’s strong enough — and I’ve tested a few myself — and it seems to be some sort of random thing to it I haven’t cracked yet.

If you snap 100 domains, maybe eight will work. Once you have that core domain, now you can spam it up. I’ve written about that in my post to make it an authority based on the backlinks.

Then you use a canonical. The original domain is burned completely and by using a canonical there seems to be a delay in Google which lifts all penalties. So the new domain gains immediate authority and rankings like a fresh domain — but that will die too — and then you just canonical a new domain and the cycle continues.

So while it is churn and burn, it’s still long-term as long as you have that core domain.

How much do you think they’re actually spending to run this kind of operation?

Not that much. You can snap a really strong domain name for $10,000 and say you buy 100 and only eight work — you make your money back because you get those top positions.

Especially in black markets where the commission rates are insane. It’s worth it.

And it’s a shortcut. You don’t know if there’s going to be any black markets in four years if you do traditional SEO. This is way faster and easier and Google does nothing about it yet.

Do you think recent Google updates are actually doing anything?

The parasite stuff started popping up and Google gave everyone a warning — six months — it’ll be gone. Nothing happened. They just got stronger.

But now lately I’m seeing big parasites dying slowly. Video game sites and stuff getting erased from their highs. So maybe yes — I think the latest updates have done something. Canonicals are still strong though. There’s always a delay with Google.

What are the main tactics working right now?

Expired domains. That’s the only tactic. If you want to compete, you can’t start a fresh affiliate site. You don’t have a chance.

You could invest heavily in links but we’re talking multi-million compared to just snapping a domain and using the canonical trick. It’s much cheaper.

Why do some domains work and others don’t?

I haven’t cracked that yet.

It has to do with the domain and links and authority. Some old companies work really well, but not all.

You launch 10 or 20 and only a few stick. It’s strange. Maybe random chance or something missing.

Do you think CTR manipulation is being used?

Yes, 100%.

CTR manipulation works. Lowering bounce rate, increasing time on site — these things can influence rankings.

There’s also traffic bursts from platforms like Twitter/X that work for a short time.

But again, not every site benefits.

How can brands in regulated markets compete against this?

Make it more appealing to play on regulated markets.

That means removing friction, improving experience — but it reduces margins. Taxes hurt.

The other option is regulation changes, but that takes years.

There’s no simple solution to stopping black markets.

From an SEO perspective, what should legitimate brands be doing?

Branding.

Real branding. You can fake metrics, but you can’t fake real brand demand.

Direct traffic, brand searches — that’s powerful.

But it’s expensive, especially in high-tax markets.

Do links still matter?

Yes. It’s all links.

Content doesn’t matter like it used to. AI has made content easy.

Google has to rely on links because everything else can be gamed.

At the end of the day, it’s a popularity contest.

Should brands consider black hat tactics?

No. If you’re building a brand, you don’t want to burn it.

Black hat works short term, but long term it goes from 100 to zero.

Do spam links and negative SEO still work?

They can.

You can get a temporary boost until Google evaluates them, then it can hurt you.

Better to disavow — better safe than sorry.

Is it becoming easier or harder to compete in tier one markets?

Much harder.

Unless you’re doing black hat, or you’re an established brand, or you have an old authority domain — it’s very difficult.

Final question — are you working on any experiments at the moment?

No. I have kids, so this is more of a hobby now.

I write posts to stay relevant and keep learning. If I didn’t, I’d get bored.

Any SEO copies competitors — that’s how you learn — and I just share what I find.

Closing

It’s been really interesting having you on and hearing your opinion on everything that’s going on at the moment when it comes to Google and black hat SEO.

Thanks a lot for joining.

No worries.

We’ll include a link to your LinkedIn if anyone wants to follow.

Do you have anything else to plug?

No, nothing I can think of.

Awesome. Thanks a lot.

Cheers.