The adult industry is a slice of the market that generates a huge amount of traffic, and you need to understand it well to invest correctly and earn good returns.
Adult and dating SEO can be tricky even for experienced digital marketers.
It may sound obvious, but in a sector so closely tied to how technology changes, keeping up is part of the daily routine.
Optimising your site for search is the first step towards ranking higher in the SERP and bringing in a large volume of traffic, and with it more conversions.
Where do you start?
At Visilay we have been handling every side of SEO for businesses of all kinds for several years. Yes, adult businesses included.
That experience has shown us how much it matters to plan a targeted strategy with clear growth goals if you want a business to grow in organic search.
In this article we explain the best strategies for adult SEO and walk you through some of our main services.
Keyword analysis
Keywords: how many times have you heard about them?
Here is a secret: current algorithms reward the quality of the keywords you use, not the quantity. In other words, a rich vocabulary (synonyms) and rich content.
First, look around you: what are your competitors doing?
Study your competitors' strategies
Before putting together any kind of SEO strategy you need to start with the basics: identify your direct competitors, who they are and how they work.
A thorough competitor analysis gives you a lot of useful information: which content performs best and how to use the right keywords.
You can use several online tools for this kind of research.
One is Ahrefs (paid, with a limited free version), which checks the ranking of the keyword you type and also shows related keywords that are ranking at that moment.
This is a handy feature for spotting new opportunities in keywords with a higher search volume.
Alternatively, you can use free tools such as keyword.io or Google Keyword Planner in Google Ads. Bear in mind that Keyword Planner hides data for many adult terms, so for this sector a third-party tool is usually more reliable.
Choose the keywords to focus on
Finding the right keywords is a key step in building a solid adult SEO strategy.
As we said, choosing keywords with a high search volume can work well, perhaps combined with other keywords you select yourself.
Put yourself in the user's shoes: what would you search for to find the content you offer?
This is where it gets harder. Not all keywords are equal.
There are generic keywords, such as "cam girls", niche keywords, such as "live cam girls", and long-tail keywords, such as "uk cam girls live".
The main difference between these types of keyword is search volume.
Generic keywords have very high search volumes and, as a result, a lower conversion rate.
Long-tail keywords rely on being specific, which makes them easier to rank for and better at converting.
To build an SEO strategy that works in a competitive sector like adult, you need to take these factors into account and find a balance between generic and long-tail keywords.
Our advice is to build your brand on a solid identity first, rather than going straight for keywords that are too competitive.
Website structure
If you want your website to convert as well as possible, you need the right foundations.
That is why every page should be built with adult SEO in mind.
Here are a few suggestions.
Domain name
Now it is time to choose your domain name.
Our advice: don't get creative with odd words. Your site name should be simple and relevant.
In short, something your potential customers can remember easily.
This way you improve your position in the SERP and make it more likely that users reach you simply by typing your URL.
It is no coincidence that many sites put the main keyword in the domain name to strengthen their brand.
Be careful, though: this only helps your rankings as long as you keep publishing quality content. Otherwise Google will treat it as bad practice.
Another tip: avoid several keywords separated by hyphens.
Of course, you need to buy the domain. At that point there are two routes we recommend:
- Buy and register a new domain;
- Buy an expired domain with existing backlinks.
Whichever option you choose, never lose sight of quality: it is what can move you to the top of the SERP.
Hosting and IP address
Starting a business in the adult and dating sector comes with different responsibilities from a business on a conventional website.
We recommend paying close attention to the terms and conditions of the services you offer and using an IP address dedicated to this business alone. The same goes for hosting.
Put simply, if you own another site, don't connect it, because Google may classify it as adult too.
It is a small detail, but if you run a diversified business, overlooking it could seriously damage your other activities.
That is why it is always advisable to hand the technical side over to a professional.
Website security
Google favours web pages served over a secure protocol (HTTPS), which give users more privacy.
Moving from plain HTTP to HTTPS helps optimise the site for adult SEO because it has a direct effect on:
- Click-through rate;
- Loading speed.
Website speed
As we just mentioned, page speed matters a great deal for conversions.
A slow page can lose you half of your incoming traffic and hurt your rankings.
A few tips:
- Keep the site light and load only the resources each page needs;
- Use a fast adult-friendly host;
- Optimise files and images.
Here too, an SEO specialist can be very useful: they will run an in-depth analysis of your site to find weak points to fix, or build one tailored to your needs.
If you want a first idea of how your website performs, try one of these popular tools:
- PageSpeed Insights (by Google);
- GTmetrix;
- Pingdom Tools.
Code
Another factor in optimising your site for adult SEO is the code.
Keep it as light as possible and avoid cluttered, heavy pages.
Every page is crawled by the algorithm, which recognises how well a site performs in terms of speed, content and other factors.
If you are not an experienced developer, we advise against doing this yourself, to avoid damage and wasted time and resources.
The robots.txt file
What is the robots.txt file?
It is a text file placed in the root folder of the website.
What does it do?
It tells the search engines that crawl your content which parts of the site they may access.
Now it should be clearer why this small file matters.
A well-configured robots.txt keeps crawlers focused on the pages you want to rank.
This makes it much easier for the algorithms to find your quality content.
Here is Google's official guide to creating a robots.txt file for your site.
Sitemap
We have explained how much a solid structure matters for an adult website.
The next step is to build a sitemap with adult SEO in mind, so that every page on the site can be indexed.
That is not all.
A sitemap also helps you:
- Assess the quality of your content;
- Spot indexing errors.
Here is Google's official guide to building a sitemap for your site.
Mobile first
Last but not least: make sure your website works properly on all mobile devices, Android and iOS alike.
Most traffic now comes from these devices, so to be competitive you have to invest properly in this area.
If your site is still being built, it will follow what is now known as the mobile-first approach.
If you already have a site, no problem.
Plenty of tools let you analyse how your site performs on mobile devices.
The most widely used are:
- Google Search Console: free reports and suggestions for fixing errors;
- Proranktracker: checks your position in the search engines.
This makes it easier to see what to improve and how.
Here too, it is worth working with an experienced SEO consultant.
If you would like to know more, get in touch. We are happy to help.
Website content
Content is what gives your online business its value.
However technically perfect your site is, it will not convert without quality content, structured in a clear and consistent way.
In this section we explain why.
Optimise URLs with keywords
We have already covered planning your brand's online presence, the stage where you select keywords and choose the domain name.
Now you need to put that research to use, placing the keywords in the site's URLs as well as within the pages themselves.
A few tips:
Make relevant choices and don't overdo it: keyword stuffing will count against you.
Avoid stop words such as articles and prepositions.
Create main pages and subpages
As we said, a well-built sitemap helps content get crawled and therefore helps your pages rank.
That process is closely linked to how the site is organised internally.
Google rewards sites that make things easy for users by offering good navigation.
The best approach is to design the site with the classic "tree" structure, where main pages and subpages branch out from the home page.
Unique, quality content
We will keep saying it: high-quality content is what gives your online business its value.
If you want better rankings, more search visibility and therefore more traffic, you have to invest in it.
In recent years Google has placed more and more weight on unique content in every sector. Yes, adult too.
That is the only way to give users a high-quality experience.
So how do you write quality content?
Here are some suggestions:
- Avoid copied content, including within your own site. If you can't avoid it, use the appropriate tags so you are not penalised;
- Use relevant keywords to create original content. Remember that keyword stuffing is one of the worst bad practices;
- Use headings (H1, H2, H3, H4) to organise your content;
- Write at least 750 words per page, a sensible minimum for adult SEO.
Finally, remember the value of working with a professional copywriter and SEO consultant, who can advise you on how best to organise your content.
Keep content up to date
You have created quality content that converts? Good, but that is not the end of it.
Like every other sector, adult needs content to be updated regularly. Otherwise you risk losing a good position in the SERP.
To stop a page, or worse the whole site, from going out of date, you will need to monitor it constantly and update its content.
This process also helps you catch errors that can affect a website over its lifetime.
The classic example is the 404 Not Found error.
Add internal and external links
A competitive adult SEO strategy needs links, both internal and external.
Internal links connect the pages of your site to each other.
External (outbound) links connect your site to other pages.
Your job is to optimise these links to add value to your pages, especially the most important ones.
That is why this stage should follow a preliminary study to work out which pages traffic should be concentrated on.
A few tips:
- Link internal pages consistently, keeping the "tree" structure mentioned above in mind;
- Add relevant outbound links that genuinely add something to the user's experience.
Images and alt text
There are many ways to get more out of your keywords. One of them is images.
Ranking in Google Images can add around 10% to your traffic.
How? It is simple.
To optimise images for SEO you essentially need to:
- Rename the file, ideally with a keyword;
- Write descriptive alt text, using synonyms of the keyword.
Organise content with tags and categories
The bigger your site, the more you need to keep it tidy and user-friendly.
Tags and categories are the basic tools for this.
How do you use them strategically for adult SEO?
Think of categories as groups that hold broader content.
Within these groups, tags make content easier to find by creating subsets.
This way of thinking may not come naturally at first, but over time it pays off in conversions.
Canonical tags for duplicate content
As we explained, Google penalises duplicate content.
This applies to every website, adult sites included.
Of course, you can't always stick to this rule, which is why a useful tool exists: the canonical tag.
Introduced by Google, Bing and Yahoo! in 2009, it tells crawlers which address is the reference for a set of URLs.
This way you can tell the search engine which page is the "original source" the other pages refer to, and avoid ranking penalties as a result.
Hreflang tags for multilingual sites
Do you get international traffic? Then you will almost certainly have a multilingual site.
That is great, but you need to make sure it works in your favour in search rather than against you.
To do that, make sure the translated version of each page is shown to users who speak that language.
How? With the hreflang tag, which points search engines to the right language version of each page.
The tag is fairly simple: you add an HTML line to the markup of each language version of the page.
Here too, we suggest using an SEO consultant for this kind of work: feel free to contact us with any request.
Use structured data
As you probably know, pages with adult content cannot appear in rich media search results, because it goes against Google's rules.
Even so, good use of structured data can help your site rank better and reach a new pool of users.
Structured data gives crawlers extra information about your site, which increases its value. To keep it working, test it regularly.
One of the most widely used tools for this is Google's Structured Data Markup Helper.
Noindex and nofollow tags to control indexing
We have already covered the robots.txt file and its role in how search engines crawl content.
To optimise your site fully, you may also need two complementary tools: the noindex and nofollow tags.
Let us explain.
While robots.txt gives general instructions for the whole site, noindex and nofollow pass specific instructions for each page.
In a sector as fiercely competitive as adult, these tags help put the right pages in front of search engines and channel quality traffic to them.
Quality meta content
Technically, a site optimised for adult SEO works exactly like any other.
That means you need to take great care over writing high-quality, tailored meta content that gets the most clicks.
Remember that meta content is what appears in the SERP: it has to give the essential information and make users want to click.
How? A few suggestions:
- Every page should have an original title and meta description;
- Stick to the character limits: roughly 55 for the title and 165 for the meta description;
- Include the keyword: at the start of the title, and within the text of the meta description;
- Use your brand name;
- End the meta description with a CTA.
Backlinks
Backlinks are one of the things that bring in both organic and direct traffic. It is no accident that they have been one of the core tools of SEO for years.
But what are backlinks?
Backlinks, or inbound links, are all the links through which other sites point to yours.
The more you have, the more traffic you get.
Backlinks signal quality and authority, two things Google's algorithm likes a lot.
So it makes sense to use them to your advantage in adult SEO.
Here are a few suggestions.
Quality, authoritative backlinks
In SEO, quantity is (almost) never the same as quality.
That is why it is better to aim for dozens of quality backlinks from authoritative sources than hundreds from sites with little credibility.
An example?
If you run a dating site, a couple of reviews on reputable dating review sites are worth more than appearing many times on a classified ads site.
To assess backlink quality you can use online tools such as Majestic or Semrush.
Deep linking
Deep linking is a practice that combines backlinks and internal links in a smart way.
Backlinks matter a lot, but they should not all point to the same page.
That is why you need to spread inbound links across different destinations on your site, including secondary pages.
All while keeping consistency and the browsing experience in mind.
Quality anchor text
We have explained what backlinks are and why they matter, but how do you make them really effective?
The answer: quality keywords.
Yes: to get the most conversions you need to favour quality keywords, synonyms included.
The stronger the anchor text, the higher your site will rank for those keywords.
Be careful, of course: don't overload your content with keywords, or search engines may penalise you.
Dofollow and nofollow links
Not all backlinks are equal. Keep this in mind when building your adult SEO strategy.
Links come in two types: dofollow and nofollow.
The first are the most useful for SEO: they act as a quality marker that tells Google to pass on value.
Receiving links of this kind is essential, and by default all links are dofollow.
And this is where the problem lies.
To avoid an unnatural link profile and losing credibility with the search engine, you also need nofollow links.
These are marked with an HTML attribute that tells the search engine not to pass value to the linked page, for example because it is paid, user-generated or not fully trusted.
Getting the balance right between dofollow and nofollow links is not easy, which is why specialist advice is worth it.
Contact us for quotes and information.
How do you get backlinks?
After this overview of backlinks, the most important part remains.
How do you get them?
There are many ways, but whatever strategy you adopt will affect your SEO.
So avoid tactics that promise big results at first but could damage your rankings in the long run.
Some suggestions to keep in mind:
- Invest in guest posts: this lets you build partnerships, sometimes long-lasting ones, with external sites and create value for both sides;
- Check that backlinks don't point to pages with outdated content: tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs help a lot here;
- Get your content seen: most mainstream social networks restrict adult content, but you can use forums in your niche;
- Create quality infographics for an engaging, user-friendly experience.
SEO analysis
So now you have a website fully optimised for adult SEO.
Is that it? Of course not.
Monitoring and assessing your site's performance has to be an ongoing process. That is the only way to get real results over the long term.
How? Here is some practical advice.
The factors to check most often
As we have just explained, SEO for the adult sector is broad and has many sides. There is a lot to keep in mind and many factors to analyse.
Three of them matter most for keeping results consistently good:
- Organic traffic volume;
- SERP positions and number of clicks;
- Backlinks.
The most useful SEO analysis tools
SEO analysis needs dedicated tools that give you the data you need quickly and easily.
We have already mentioned Semrush and Ahrefs, but we also recommend two other tools that are now considered essential:
- Google Analytics;
- Google Search Console.
Doing this kind of analysis yourself is not easy, as it requires specific knowledge.
To get the most from your investment, work with an experienced SEO consultant.
You can contact us at any time for a quote.
Conclusion
If you have read the whole guide, you will have seen that an adult SEO strategy is a long process but, done well, it can deliver strong results over time.
Be aware, though: digital marketing keeps changing. A strategy that works today may not have the same effect tomorrow.
There are many factors to consider and a lot of research to do, both on adult SEO and on your own brand.
If you are thinking of investing in SEO to grow your online business, Visilay can help. Contact us for information, questions or a free, no-obligation quote: together we will work out the right strategy for your business.
