As part of the Google “Web Creator Conversation” Event, which I and 19 other web publishers were invited to on Oct 28/29 – we’re being encouraged to introduce ourselves for a few minutes at the start of the day on the 29th.
I say “3 Minutes” because we’re being asked to keep it around that – after all, there’s 20 of us, and plenty of time to talk more during a 9ish-hour day!
Along with 26 pages of notes, details, data, and ideas on how we improve from here, I wanted to share what I plan on saying when I introduce myself, which I wrote down specifically to keep myself on-track.
My name is Rutledge Daugette, and I’m the Founder of TechRaptor, a gaming website dedicated to both video and tabletop games that I launched in 2013.
I take $0 from TechRaptor and my focus is on creating sustainable jobs in the Gaming Industry, and an outlet I’d be proud to share.
TechRaptor’s rates are higher than competitors that are 10x our size, and I don’t force our team to follow a crazy SEO template – I just want them to cover what they’re passionate about.
I didn’t pay any attention to SEO until our search traffic spiked in 2018 with the mobile-first update indexing update, but even as I delved into it, my focus has always been steady long-term growth vs. quick wins that are low quality.
By the numbers, TechRaptor is down at least 80% since the Product Review update in Sep 2022, surviving only by changing ad networks, but by contrast many of my colleagues are down 80-90% or more. GGRecon received their invite after they shut down the company.
I’ve been forced to cut 4 full time staff members, and reduce charitable giving alongside investment in new and emerging writers.
My biggest frustration since our first hit by the Product Reviews Update in 2022, is that we don’t do what much of our competition does.
- Zero content written for Trends or titled for Discover.
- We don’t post content like “Roblox Codes October 2024”.
- Guides are written pre-release with content chosen based on helping players.
- Our team is required to complete a game before submitting a review, sometimes 40 hours of time to do.
At this point in time, I’m beyond frustrated…I’m going to share some admittedly painful details that align with what Elizabeth was saying around bad or unhelpful advice:
We’ve done content updates, massive prunes of what we consider poor articles, and so much more. We’ve also spent well over $Redacted in development to improve the UX and structure of the site, with over 400 large and incremental changes to that end.
Note: I’m going to redact names and numbers here, I understand people may want to know, but I’d rather not put people on blast.
I’ve done SEO/Site Audits with Company1 ($Redacted, this year) and Company2 even before we got hit in 2022 for $Redacted completely focused on HCU guidance. They had no complex or surprising advice, we’re “doing everything right” in their eyes.
I’d contracted with Company3 in 2022 (Pre HCU/Review Update) to get technical advice on how to improve the site as a whole and continue improving. $Redacted wasted.
Note on “Redacted” – there’s nothing preventing me from sharing this, I just don’t feel like getting into a pointless slapfight.
Here’s what I’d ask of Google (Detailed out more in the document shared with Danny):
- Develop a real way of verifying websites. The algorithm clearly doesn’t understand the good from the bad, quality raters aren’t enough.
- Provide better advice in GSC – is my issue content or is it purely a technical blunder?
- Don’t let media conglomerates like Forbes, Valnet, Fandom, and others run rampant. In our industry, the Valnet sites tend to publish content after everyone else that’s targeted off trends and using content “spun” from other sites.
- Have more meaningful conversations – 3 minutes isn’t enough to explain our story. Make time for us, build a publisher council.
- De-prioritize Reddit – it’s undercutting fantastic content with low quality and deleted posts, taking traffic away from very real articles.
Right now, the internet feels reactionary, designed to feed off views & emotion instead of the spread of information. Search and discover reward that, leading to a media that incentivizes that content for writers.
The algorithm updates of the last 2 years have decimated the media industry, and at times it feels targeted.
The overwhelming sentiment in the games media space, is that Google doesn’t care about the work that we do, and with the introduction of AI Overviews – that sentiment is reinforced as our content is taken (yes, taken) for re-use with no benefit to our websites, or the talented people who are paid to create the content.
In my eyes – Google can be instrumental in furthering the spread of information, but it needs publishers.
If the hits continue at this pace, there will be no professional gaming industry left in the next 2 years, just media conglomerates that spew out low quality content for low rates.
Thank you.
If you want to read the additional notes I sent over along with this, I’ve posted them here: My Notes & Thoughts for the October 2024 “Web Creator Conversation” Event.
Rutledge Daugette 
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