Adorned with a bright collection of Brandon Saltalamchia, a bright collection of retro gaming parafarnellia, provides a glimpse in the passion that has operated his professional life.
In this interview with Saltalamachia, you will learn about his humble start as an independent publisher to navigate the SEO's labyrinth challenges in a Google world.
Early days: a tourist van and a dream
Work began in full -time work for future publication in 2017 in the independent publication of Saltlamchia. SEOs and a self-ensured “Newb” in content marketing, he included his love for a tourist van a website dedicated to a small passion project.
“It was a small pot on the wheels,” Saltalamachia said, “Remembering its first camper van,” But we had a bunch of fun with it. “
The website, built on pure enthusiasm and curiosity, caught a buyer's eye in 2019. Sales allowed Saltalamachia to move towards its real passion: retro gaming.
Retro Dodo was born as an individual project, mixing the NAC of Saltalamachia for the creation of material with its lifetime love of the classic games.
“I started writing about the things I enjoyed and started to unboxing the game boys. [on YouTube],” He said.
It was not a long time before the site began to receive traction, fuel by the real enthusiasm of Saltalamachia and a simple, direct material strategy.
Building Retro Dodo: passion to business
Retro Dodo continued to grow from its establishment, thanks to the wish of Saltalamachia for experimenting with CO and social media.
“I installed the Yost SEO plugin and ensured that every little thing was green,” he said.
While Saltalamachia accepted to follow some misleading SEO advice, the site flourished due to its authenticity and dedication to serve its top audiences due to its authenticity and dedication.
By 2021, Retro Dodo had developed into a fully developed media company with a team of six, with daily materials, video reviews and even books produced. It reached about 2 million readers at its peak and remembered Saltalamachia
“My [Google] Search Console said, “Congratulations, you killed 1 million biological results in May [2023]Salatlamchia said.
The success of the site brought collaboration with major brands and recognized from the affected people such as KC Nestat, who invited Saltalamachia to New York to discuss their shared love of retro gaming.
However, the success surface of retro dodo has an indefinite dependence on organic search traffic – a vulnerability that will soon be exposed.
Google algorithm crash
Google's September 2023 auxiliary material update sent shockwaves through the SEO world and affected many other independent publishers. For retro dodo, the effect was destructive.
,We lost about 85% of our trafficSalatlamchia said. “It felt like … as you are almost swimming and someone has put a big weight on your feet and it is just pulling you and pulling and there is nothing you can.”
Saltalamchia's early optimism gave a way to promote reality as months passed without recovery.
“I tried a lot,” he said, improving the speed of the site, refining the material and expanding efforts to follow advice from SEO advisors. Despite its efforts, retro dodo remained inevitably invisible in Google.
This experience brought Saltalamchia face to face with Google representatives, including search contact Danny Sulivan. While the meeting offered a platform to share its frustrations, it eventually provided very little in the way of actionable solutions.
“Danny said to me,” Keep doing what you are doing. Your site is great. I can't see anything wrong with it. “What I want, he never said that everyone is honest for me because You find almost something wrong, ”said Saltalamachia.
Reinforcement and a new chapter
Facing the declining traffic and increasing financial pressure, Saltalamachia took a tough decisions, reduced their team and scale the back operation. Nevertheless, the main community of retro dodo was loyal, and Saltalamachia refused to give up his vision.
“We are very lucky that there are quite a large community and there are many people who return to our work to read, especially news and reviews. We are well known for him in our niche. So, we are still beneficial, we are definitely nowhere as we used to make, ”said Saltalamachia.
Moving forward, retro dodo is creating video content, premium membership, and its own products and events.
Retro dodo infection in ghost platforms reflects a comprehensive change in attention: the creation of a permanent, high quality digital magazine for retro gaming enthusiasts.
Along with this, Saltalamachia started with a new venture KagiA payment, advertising-free search engine that is designed to prefer user experience on advertising revenue.
“Kagi [is] Trying to make the web human, ”he said. “No advertisement, no tracking … My full focus is to create a great environment and help the families to search without any distraction.”
In his role as a consultant, Saltlamchia Kagi wants to help the champion independent publishers and redefine the online search landscape. He also shared five pracharak codes that would free you from one month Kagi ultimat, which is a limited per user. Once these codes are claimed, they go away:
- Searchlande48e1320
- Searchland05311655
- SearchlandD10EC7C1
- Searchland4f87658e
- Searchland33bd5b0
Lesson for creators
The visit to Saltalamchia provides valuable insight to interested creators and independent publishers.
“People will not really do not really blogging until they are super emotional about that subject. Therefore, I think the creators are going to YouTube, even if it is competitive,” said Saltalamachia. ” People who are still doing and still alive are with true passion for those they cover. “
Google changed the game for independent creators. So what is their advice for the creators in this era when we are watching Google's encircle? Pay attention to creating extraordinary premium-level material and making real relations with your audience.
What will happen next?
For Saltalamchia, the future is a mixture of apathy and innovation.
With the development of retro dodo and his work in Kagi, he is ready to create a permanent impact on the retro gaming community and the search landscape.
“Google and YouTube are [basically] The same thing. And the manufacturer economy on YouTube is unprecedented. … There is a really good financial incentive to create great materials and create a community that supports you.
“Whereas Google is then destroying the right, right and center. This actually tells me how the search team finds it very wrong when the YouTube team has created such a magnificent environment to entertain itself and be informed to create a possible great material business. . So I think this is where the manufacturers are going to move forward. ,
As Saltalamchia sees the future, one thing seems certain: it is far from the game.
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