Peak rankings on Australia's highest-volume pokies terms, and the durability test that followed

Australian pokies terms carry serious volume — “online pokies” at 34K, “australian online
pokies” at 34K, “best online pokies australia” at 27K, all at KD 69–72. They are also close
to unwinnable for a new commercial site: the affiliates holding those positions have spent
years building the authority to do it.

A Reddit thread inside an established Australian community starts from a different position
entirely. It inherits the domain's authority and the format Google is actively favouring for
this kind of query.

The thread peaked at 3,365 ranking keywords, with top-10 placements across the highest-volume
terms in the vertical and 2,839 monthly traffic on the single best keyword.

r/beermoneyAus was banned for violating Reddit's Rule 8, taking the host community with it.

I am including this case study because of that, not in spite of it. The interesting finding
is what the rankings did next: they did not vanish on the ban. The URLs continued returning
positions, and by January 2026 the page still held 293 ranking keywords — a substantial
decline from peak, but not the zero that the community's removal would suggest.

Reddit SEO carries platform risk that you do not control. A subreddit ban is a decision made
by moderators and administrators on their own timeline, for reasons that have nothing to do with
your SEO. No amount of technical quality insulates you from it.

So the honest read is: this channel produces results that are disproportionate to the effort,
and it produces them on rented land. It belongs in a portfolio as one channel among several,
sized accordingly — not as the foundation of an acquisition strategy. Any consultant selling
Reddit SEO without that caveat is selling you the upside and keeping the risk quiet.

Client name withheld under NDA.

Ahrefsclick to enlarge

Reddit ban noticeclick to enlarge

Ahrefsclick to enlarge