googles latest update destroyed this gamers 1m bus with timestamps YoutubeScribe.com

[0:00] this is Brandon the founder of the
[0:01] gaming publication retro Doo his site
[0:03] was generating tens of thousands of
[0:05] dollars and millions of organic monthly
[0:07] visits our best month was a couple
[0:09] million search visitors a month
[0:11] organically it was an incredible moment
[0:13] the little kid in me was basically
[0:14] collecting toys and gaming products for
[0:17] a living and we actually had a $1
[0:19] million offer to purchase retro dodo you
[0:21] Liv in your childhood dream but out of
[0:23] nowhere Google took everything away from
[0:26] him and his dream became a nightmare
[0:28] like many other businesses retro Doo has
[0:31] taken a massive hit after changes to
[0:33] Google search algorithm people were
[0:34] literally searching for us and couldn't
[0:36] find us anywhere we're still down about
[0:38] 85% traffic do you feel like you were
[0:40] gas lit by
[0:42] Google but to understand the full story
[0:45] we need to go back to where it all
[0:47] began from an early age gaming was a
[0:50] core part of Brandon's
[0:52] identity Lely look at that so this is
[0:55] what started it all really the Christmas
[0:58] I opened up my Game Boy Color and
[1:00] received Pokémon Blue that was the
[1:02] moment that kind of took my life to
[1:04] another level because I would collect
[1:06] Pokémon I would go out on the streets
[1:08] trade with friends using the really
[1:10] crusty Link cable and you couldn't see
[1:11] on the Game Boy Color so you had to be
[1:13] in the light I was obsessed with that
[1:14] kind of stuff you know my parents didn't
[1:16] have too much money when we were growing
[1:17] up so the products and the toys and the
[1:19] games that we did get were very precious
[1:21] to me so I wanted to keep them clean
[1:23] keep them sealed keep them in their box
[1:25] which my mother ended up throwing away
[1:27] my whole Pokémon collection mama I don't
[1:29] forget
[1:30] just took out half my help I know
[1:33] although video games were Brandon's
[1:34] First Love retro dodo wasn't his first
[1:37] successful website I used to create
[1:39] sites in my spare time which led me on
[1:41] to building my first website which was
[1:43] actually about
[1:44] camper it was predominantly started as a
[1:46] YouTube channel so I was obsessed with
[1:48] them I used to travel around countries
[1:50] with my friends and camans and I managed
[1:52] to sell that brand in 2019 for about
[1:55] $100,000 which was obscene for me once I
[1:58] sold the caman site it kind of gave me I
[2:00] think I calculated it's like a 2-year
[2:02] Runway to build something cool and
[2:04] that's when I built um retro dodo which
[2:05] is my bigger
[2:07] passion Brandon and his editor and chief
[2:10] Seb began building retro dodo and
[2:12] quickly found an audience in a niche
[2:14] reviewing Retro Gaming products but they
[2:16] needed to expand Their audience they
[2:18] turned to keyword research to discover
[2:20] what Their audience was searching for on
[2:22] the internet how to defeat the last boss
[2:24] in Sonic you know so new Pokémon game
[2:26] came out for example what are the top
[2:29] Pokémon that people to catch them we
[2:30] would buy the games in test them on our
[2:32] consoles put hours and hours into these
[2:35] games to almost completion and while
[2:37] doing that we'd figure out the pain
[2:38] points in the game and and write guides
[2:40] on it I think our best month was a
[2:42] couple million search visitors a month
[2:44] organically our best month we had I'd
[2:46] say about $50,000 in Revenue 60% of our
[2:49] Revenue was through display advertising
[2:51] maybe another 15% on affiliate 10%
[2:55] YouTube and then 5% sponsorships and
[2:57] collaborations how did it feel when you
[2:59] were at at the peak of your success it
[3:01] was Unreal seeing the money come in and
[3:04] having a bunch of fun working with
[3:06] friends getting to work with some of the
[3:07] biggest gaming brands in the world that
[3:09] I idolized as a child we actually had a
[3:12] $1 million offer to purchase retro
[3:15] dodo one of the primary reasons I didn't
[3:18] want to sell and it goes back to my
[3:19] first project I sold is the buyer
[3:21] actually destroyed that site over
[3:24] optimized filled it with ads used AI
[3:26] garbage on it and now it's just
[3:28] completely eradicated off of Google and
[3:29] I was worried that the purchaser that
[3:32] wanted this brand would do the same the
[3:34] brand that I've been building for five
[3:36] or six years it just didn't feel right
[3:38] handing it over to someone so it was a
[3:40] tricky one I think we had a couple of
[3:42] weeks to decide whether or not to take
[3:44] it and
[3:45] then the update
[3:48] happened at the peak you said you were
[3:50] at around a million clicks from organic
[3:53] yeah about 2 million in total though
[3:54] with social traffic and discover and
[3:56] where are you at today we are at around
[3:58] about 200,000 visitors a month now I was
[4:01] petrified to be honest with you like we
[4:03] were being inundated with replies
[4:06] subscribers followers people saying how
[4:08] much they loved their site so why was
[4:09] Google not seeing this and actually
[4:11] penalizing us I looked back at the last
[4:13] 6 years and and kind of blamed myself
[4:15] for it and it was panic I was looking
[4:17] everywhere for help I was looking online
[4:20] I was talking with friends and and
[4:22] everyone in the gaming industry that
[4:23] were friends that were doing something
[4:24] similar to me were all in the same same
[4:27] boat it was like just a pure apocalypse
[4:30] on every level I was again naive
[4:32] probably because of my experience with
[4:34] SEO I thought it would come back in a
[4:36] few weeks a few weeks turned into a few
[4:38] months I kept my team and we were
[4:40] burning through cash quite quickly but I
[4:42] was hoping because we were doing
[4:44] everything right we weren't doing
[4:46] anything shady we were following
[4:47] Google's guidelines to the tea but it
[4:49] just never ever came back and
[4:51] unfortunately as the months went by we
[4:53] had to get rid of my good friends that
[4:55] were a part of the team month by month
[4:57] so do you think that Google's guidelines
[5:00] are just a bunch of Lies I think
[5:01] Google's guidelines are correct and it's
[5:03] how websites should be built but Google
[5:06] doesn't follow them themselves and they
[5:08] don't reward the websites that follow
[5:10] him in a personal video Brandon shared
[5:12] his frustrations about how Google
[5:14] algorithm changes have buried
[5:16] independent sites like his favoring
[5:18] larger media companies Reddit and its AI
[5:21] generated answers while profiting from
[5:23] content created by smaller
[5:26] websites soon after he received an
[5:29] unexpected
[5:31] email Google decided to invite me in to
[5:34] talk about the state of search I just
[5:36] pretty much called them out and Danny
[5:38] Sullivan from Google wanted to invite me
[5:40] in to talk about that privately in
[5:42] London so it was pretty much a
[5:44] one-on-one with Danny he showed me
[5:45] around Google and then we sat down and
[5:47] and spoke about my concerns it was a
[5:49] very open conversation with Danny and I
[5:50] believe he's doing the right thing in
[5:52] trying to learn how he can make the
[5:55] serps a better place and support
[5:56] independent Publishers but as we've seen
[5:59] you know know nothing's came from that
[6:00] and traffic has gotten a lot worse since
[6:03] that meeting with uh with Danny so do
[6:04] you feel like you were gas liit by
[6:07] Google a little bit yeah it's almost
[6:10] like they're saying hey it's going to
[6:11] get better follow this donut on a stick
[6:14] it's going to get better but actually it
[6:16] hasn't got better and I think they just
[6:18] need to be open and honest with what
[6:20] they say to Independent Publishers and
[6:22] also in their guidelines Brandon left
[6:24] his meeting with Google without answers
[6:26] but he did gain fresh perspective
[6:28] January the 2 when my son was born that
[6:31] kind of changed everything for me I was
[6:33] putting my eggs in one basket that was
[6:35] the Google basket I knew I had to change
[6:38] and build a media brand that was
[6:39] slightly different that had multiple
[6:41] Revenue sources and didn't rely heavily
[6:43] on one so this is what it will initially
[6:46] look like one of the products I want to
[6:48] build is a display called the dodo
[6:49] display where a modular pegboard system
[6:52] that can show your cartridges and
[6:54] handhelds in a in a premium form factor
[6:56] we've also got two books on the market
[6:58] now called a handheld history which is
[7:00] sold over 15,000 units that's 15,000
[7:02] Gamers that we've you know produced a
[7:04] book for and I do want to build an event
[7:07] every year in the UK that brings the
[7:08] Retro Gaming industry together and then
[7:10] your smaller scale stuff like
[7:11] merchandise t-shirts we're we're
[7:13] building out a um a sticker kit for kids
[7:16] as well so I think it's opened my eyes
[7:18] to the exact people we want to pull
[7:20] through on our website we want to pull
[7:22] people through that we can convert into
[7:25] community members that will read our
[7:26] content for 5 10 15 years so I took a
[7:29] look through your site and I saw some
[7:31] really great things that you're doing
[7:32] and potential opportunities you might be
[7:34] missing out on is it all right if I show
[7:36] you sure please yeah I'd appreciate that
[7:38] I looked at your site in HFS and I think
[7:40] that you've done an incredible Job Link
[7:42] building I don't think you've ever
[7:43] actually built links right no but I
[7:45] noticed one thing that you're doing that
[7:47] is organically building some amazing
[7:50] links so if we look at the backlink
[7:52] profile did you build this link on
[7:53] Wikipedia or did that come from
[7:55] somewhere else somewhere else okay so
[7:57] somebody has linked to you to your
[7:58] bestselling GBA games from Wikipedia
[8:01] you've gotten links from The New York
[8:03] Times wire cutter here's another one
[8:05] from The
[8:06] Verge and Gadget
[8:09] NBC and you've gotten all these links so
[8:12] a lot of these links that you're getting
[8:14] are based on the fact that you're
[8:16] actually testing new products very
[8:18] quickly and so what ends up happening is
[8:20] if we look at your best
[8:23] links and top pages if we look at from
[8:27] the top here to the bottom here we're
[8:30] going to see where you lost your traffic
[8:32] and I don't know if this was intentional
[8:33] or not you yeah some of this is
[8:36] intentional yes so for example like you
[8:39] have a lot of these where it's just
[8:41] games you have these games that are
[8:42] coming out uh I don't know how big this
[8:44] game is but if we look here you got
[8:47] three referring domains
[8:49] there Kingdom
[8:51] Hearts another three Luigi's
[8:55] Mansion seven but if we actually click
[8:58] on it it redirects back to your homepage
[9:01] okay I'd like to pick your brains here
[9:03] so we were producing content on games
[9:05] that were not out yet rumors speculation
[9:09] kind of our expert opinions on it and I
[9:12] was under the impression that that's not
[9:14] what Google wants almost it felt a
[9:16] little bit clickbaity although maybe
[9:18] someone wanted our professional opinions
[9:21] on it but this kind kind of comes back
[9:22] to the whole idea of who are you
[9:24] creating content for are you creating
[9:26] content for the user or for search and
[9:29] in my opinion users want to read about
[9:32] these rumors and so personally I
[9:33] wouldn't have deleted it because what's
[9:35] happening is you're doing these great
[9:36] reviews that nobody else is doing
[9:38] because like you have the expertise
[9:40] where you can make these predictions but
[9:42] then you just redirected them to the
[9:44] homepage and so these links that you're
[9:46] getting to these pages are just being
[9:48] wasted now you're redirecting it back to
[9:50] the homepage when there's no relevance
[9:52] from Luigi's Mansion to Retro doo.com
[9:56] another site macrumors.com so they like
[9:59] rumors on Mac products so these spikes
[10:02] here all coincide they're all in
[10:04] September do you notice that oh these
[10:06] the iPhone releases are they these are
[10:08] the iPhone releases so Mac Rumors is
[10:10] really well known for these rumors but
[10:12] instead of 301 redirecting it they
[10:14] create a page like macrumors.com iPhone
[10:17] 17 and then that page will be all about
[10:19] rumors it's because it hasn't been
[10:20] released people want to know about what
[10:22] are the rumors what are the new features
[10:23] that are going to come out and then once
[10:25] it actually gets released they update
[10:27] the content to be an iPhone 17 review so
[10:30] now they buy the product and so rather
[10:32] than redirecting it to a homepage losing
[10:35] all the the link Equity killing the
[10:37] pages that people are coming to you for
[10:38] instead you can just turn those into
[10:40] reviews of the products that have
[10:41] actually come out interesting if you
[10:43] look at some of their top keywords so
[10:46] iPhone SE they're ranking number three
[10:48] for iPhone SE so if you think about that
[10:51] the top of the serup should all be Apple
[10:53] Apple Pages Mac Rumors ranks here uh
[10:56] they rank in position nine right now for
[10:59] iPhone 15 should you buy it this is what
[11:02] it's all about now the iPhone 15 all
[11:03] right and that's now a full-blown review
[11:06] yes if we take this back so we know that
[11:08] it was probably released in September
[11:09] but they start creating this rumors page
[11:11] on May
[11:13] 24th it's all about rumors and I guess
[11:16] they're just piling on all of the back
[11:18] links into that one article yeah cuz for
[11:22] years the links are already there
[11:23] they've accumulated like if we look in
[11:25] HS for iPhone 15 look at that massive
[11:30] Spike and searches that comes in in
[11:32] there right imagine ranking for like
[11:34] number two or number three for Luigi's
[11:36] Mansion mhm and now your your reviews
[11:38] are getting read and as people read
[11:40] those reviews as they enjoy them they
[11:42] discover your brand that's the initial
[11:44] seed that's planted which I think search
[11:46] does better than any other platform
[11:49] while it's true that Google's update
[11:50] caused retro Doo's traffic to plummet
[11:52] dramatically it also lit a new Fire
[11:55] Within Brandon to fight for the underdog
[11:57] and build businesses with more in
[11:59] Integrity after your site got smashed
[12:01] you're now looking at job opportunities
[12:04] yeah so this is a really unique one I am
[12:07] potentially working with a company to do
[12:09] some consultancy with to create a search
[12:11] engine that is unbiased no ads no
[12:14] privacy tracking and all of that to
[12:16] create a search engine that's actually
[12:18] you know authentic and puts the human
[12:21] first it's a big risk me doing that you
[12:23] know there's so much going on with retro
[12:25] dodo I do believe it's a brand that's
[12:26] going to absolutely kill it over the
[12:28] next 10 to 15 years but I think for me
[12:30] there's a little bit more meaning in
[12:32] working with a company that's trying to
[12:34] build a real search engine that actually
[12:36] helps that doesn't have bias and that
[12:37] you can actually customize yourself so
[12:39] if you really like retro dodo but just
[12:41] aren't seeing them for some reason you
[12:43] can actually click prioritize and it
[12:44] will push them higher up in the uh
[12:46] search results which I think is is a
[12:48] really cool feature that will will help
[12:50] people get discovered do you think that
[12:52] small creators shouldn't focus on seo
[12:54] seo is still a small part of our
[12:56] strategy it's more kind of picking the
[12:59] terms and queries that our community are
[13:01] searching for and assisting with that in
[13:02] a fluid and professional manner use it
[13:04] to assist rather than to prioritize
[13:06] revenues yeah and I think that's
[13:08] actually an important point because the
[13:10] problem with the way a lot of creators
[13:12] approach search is they expect it to
[13:15] build some kind of community it's a good
[13:17] way of of the initial Discovery but then
[13:20] from there you need to find ways to
[13:22] capture that contact so that might be
[13:24] through an email address or something
[13:25] like that and then you can actually
[13:26] start nurturing and building that
[13:27] relationship I totally agree and I think
[13:30] it's now Publishers roles to bring in
[13:33] those viewers with SEO and try and
[13:35] convert them into loyal community
[13:37] members that will follow you for a long
[13:38] period of time that's where the value is
[13:41] if you want to learn how to get traffic
[13:42] from Google watch our free SEO course
[13:44] for beginners right here on YouTube

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