Google Is Killing Us (& Other Independent Sites)

A video I certainly didn't want to make but here we are, recently algorithm changes at Google has made the search engine a pay to win ecosystem with independent sites like ours completely disappearing from the results, without change Retro Dodo will be no longer.

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[RetroDodo]

I also want to add a couple of points that I missed in the video that also show how difficult Google are being against small websites:

1.) There's zero support. If anything goes wrong with our rankings or we want to seek advice from a Google rep there's nobody to help us. The last 7 months have been anxiety inducing and even more so that Google just points me to a feedback form regarding how they can make their algorithm changes better? We need someone to talk to, our livelihoods are on the line yet all there is, is a form and a Twitter account that gives incredibly poor advice, and only ever responds with "make better content". If this was any other industry that wiped out a business entirely there would at least be someone there to tell you why, or to atleast help you understand why, but with Google there's nothing.

2.) Small websites had zero heads up that these updates were going to happen, losing search volume hours after it launched, whereas large media companies were giving months notice to clean up their act with the recent reputation abuse update that went live recently.

3.) The internet still needs independent websites. If there's only a few hundred media-company owned websites that survive it will simply become a place of low quality, regurgitated content that creates a depressing eco-system that isn't free and can easily be manipulated, making it an incredibly powerful weapon that shares information. Right now this information is biased towards Google's bottom line and training their AI robots that will remove any unique, new indendent website that dare steps in its way. Google has a duty to make the internet open, and free while allowing their users to explore the open-web without bias.

What this comes down to is that we just want Google to be a fair place. Let the best content win, period.

Again, thank you so much for your continued support and hopefully Google see's this an understands that there's creatives, and families being supported on these independent websites, removing them not only removes food off of our tables, but removes jobs for talented individuals within our industries. ❤

[alacrity]

90%?! That's ridiculous. Not to mention, Google search results are useless these days.

[pyaeyanaung]

Remember when google remove don't be evil from their code of conduct. This is why

[tdome]

The only thing that I've noticed about Google is that the quality of their search results has fallen to an appallingly bad level over the past 3-4 years. 80% of my search results are just utter crap and have nothing to do with what I want.

[incomebuddies]

Google is now only about short term gain and revenue.

Many people are using Bing for searches nowadays as Google is basically a forum search engine.

Led by the same person who single-handedly crashed Yahoo, Google was like Yahoo in its last days.

Pretty sad to see how low Google have fallen

[AshBates]

As someone who works for another, bird-themed gaming website, these changes have been catastrophic for us too. It's utterly demoralising. Google doesn't know what they're talking about with regards to "helpful content", because Retro Dodo's content has been massively helpful to me when writing lists, hahaha!

Side note: those display cases look like they'd be sick.

[MRAROCKERDUDE]

We have 4 websites, all 90% down from a year ago. I’m now searching for a job as I can’t afford to continue. Thanks Google.

[chrisnazario]

Google is becoming increasingly more annoying and morally moving further away from where they started.

[eRideHero]

Thanks for speaking up! I'm in the same boat as you. Dedicated the last half-decade and my entire adult working life to creating honest, data-driven content around micro-mobility. Thousands of hours of effort effectively demolished overnight by Google. The most infuriating thing is that the results that have replaced me (and my likeminded competitors) are poor-quality, barely scratch the surface and sometimes with outright dangerous recommendations. Google is not giving small creators like us ANYTHING to work with (but they'll happily communicate with, and give time to big media corps that are obviously abusing their authority at the expense of consumers).

[ChrisWilliamsDallas]

Thanks for speaking on this. As someone managing a small business' site, I've seen traffic drop to near zero. Now, I need to push more into social media channels for traffic, which feels impossible at the moment.

[gca]

Just changed from Google to Duck duck go, typed "retro handheld console" and first result was retro dodo.

Fuck all these greedy companies. We support you. Congratulations on being a father!😊

Same with my local digital magazine, once receiving 1000+ visitas a day, mostly from Google, now not even 10. Without warnings. So, don't be evil, evil.

[MIDNITE]

Seems to me like the most immediate fix to this issue is for independent sites/publishers to create their own sub-reddit and post not just links to articles in that sub, but also a relevant text snippet from the article in the post. That would feed into Google's love for Reddit perfectly and drive traffic back to the independent publisher's website.

Basically turn Reddit into a middle-man between Google and your site.

[Tiia]

Hey, I am an independent creator as well and my magazine got basically killed after being boosted by the last HCU. I always put a lot of effort into researching my information to be a reliable source. My rankings have been replaced with nonsense AI generated babble.
It's heartbreaking and I kinda don't want to give up on the site but if google does not want to list helpful content, I don't want to cater towards WHAT they want to push forward.

[JoeMac]

Yep. Right there with you. I lost over 90% of my traffic over the last calendar year as well. I was making just shy of $20, 000 from my blog per year for a few years straight and I've made $1, 600 from the last calendar year. It's such a gut punch.

[BruDege]

Brandon, thank you deeply for sharing this incredibly important message. As a reader/viewer and one of the owners of an independent video games website in Brazil, I feel a profound sense of empathy. I'm sorry that we have to face times like this. Let's remain hopeful for the future, but more importantly, I wish you, your family, and the entire team at Retro Dodo nothing but health, prosperity, and peace. Take care.

[product-reviews]

Google search has been becoming worse and worse over the past year or so. The guy that is charge of it is Prabhakar Raghavan. Previously he was head of Yahoo search and destroyed it...

[iOSHacker]

Thank you for making this video! We have also been affected by the March update and have been gradually losing traffic. From March until today, we have lost over 70% of our traffic. And even though Google says the March update was completed on April 19, our traffic continues to go down to this day. I hope sense prevails and Google stops killing small and independent sites as it is not doing its users any favors.

[BriefNerdOriginal]

If a webpage was made for advertising, sprinkled with just a few popular info was a way to attract users, then it wouldn't be fair calling it a search engine. Google is an advertisement company that happens to serve interesting info every now and then

[CF]

It's distressing how many creators I have seen in the last few months in similar situations.