Lost in the Googleverse: The fight for survival among independent websites
Every business that is reliant on another company's platform for their livelihood is at risk. I've discussed this before, and here's another example. This is a truly unfortunate situation.
Brandon Saltalamacchia, Google Is Killing Retro Dodo & Other Independent Sites
“The main source of our traffic was through Google Search. Whenever you searched for something retro gaming-related, our hope was that you would stumble across our website for advice, as we have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into expert journalists to provide you with answers to your retro gaming queries. It worked incredibly well; Google’s search engine did what it entailed, showing users informative content created by human experts.” […] “Since September 2023, Google has hidden our site from millions of retro gamers, reducing our organic traffic and revenue by 85% and causing our business to be on the edge of going under.” […] “Unfortunately, it’s not looking good for us, and in all honesty we’re all out of cash.”
As I mentioned earlier, this is a sad story. Even though I'm not a gamer myself, if you are perhaps you could consider showing some support for this company.