How an error on Google killed diablo2.io overnight, RIP this site and any future prospects for it

I have good news though. When i google ''Diablo 2 market'', diablo2.io is the second result on the first page and it leads to main diablo2.io page. So it's not that bad i hope.

I believe we can do something to make it back where it belongs. Any ideas?

Teebling,

that are very bad news, but I keep my fingers crossed, hoping that Google will rollback this mess and make the whole situation go poof.

This site is a great, beautyful and friendly place in the Inet and I love, what you made out of a couple of 0s and 1s and a whole lotta time, love and knowledge.

I was bummed out when I read this. Your site is great and I will do what I can to promote it word of mouth in-game. I hope others will do the same.

@Teebling, FWIW, d2io's announcement about the existence of a trade market is non-ad hit #3 for a desktop Google search of "d2r trade". You know the web analytics better than we do, of course, so no telling if that is a strong entry vector for the site, but still first page near the top.

Not to detract from the massive blow/frustration. But hopefully a small consolation? Might still have a strong showing for alternate search phrases. I don't know that I'd consider it a site-killer, but definitely acknowledge it's a big setback.

It's at nr.1 when I Google on my phone, nr.7 when I Google on pc.. Different browsers maybe? It's a weird issue for sure

just checked on my desktop and there's only these pages on Page 2 of google search results: ;(

Bisu wrote: 2 years ago

If ads campaign has had such a glaring bug, it's hard to believe it would pass QA and Release... But you never know. Just imagine what kind of irate they will face if the same happen with big corp clients.

A big corp (such as Google) will never admit to its mistake (unless forced to, for example by a court order or it was a very bad PR event and the evidence is striking). In any case, the corp will do its best to cover the mistake either entirely, or, if not possible, obfuscate it and hide as many details as possible.

The reaction also strongly depends on who was affected.
If another big corp was involved, it will make every effort to smooth things over, or it'd risk being invaded by an army of lawyers.
But if it was a lesser player, such as "a random game site", the corp will plausibly deny that anything happened (well, there is a reason why their algorithms are closed source). And the sad truth is that such a minor player has no resources to fight back, so the corp can do anything it wants to.

Fuck Google. Fucking greedy corporation. It knows that it has de facto monopoly and abuses that as much as it can. At least it dropped its former "don't be evil" motto, so it is not that hypocritical.

Don't give up, Teebling. You've done so much hard work here. It will not be wasted.
I hope it is a temporary inconvenience and will be fixed shortly.

To further motivate you, yet another search engine. We're not at the top, but pretty close:

This seems like a crappy, crappy situation, especially given the fact that Teebling just finished the upgrades to add even more nice things to an already great site, and it was ready for the new ladder season to start. That is very frustrating, to say the least.

If I recall correctly, when I first started trading in d2r, I didn't just do a quick search and pick the top hit. I actually checked out a few sites, and then decided diablo2.io is the one I want, as it feels just right. And I imagine that a lot of users have done and will do the same.

Once the landing page gets indexed correctly, let's see if we can get its ranking up organically. You have done it once and you can do it again.

Hey guys, still no change, going to bed soon.

Thank you @Th3ory and also Nitropay (my ad partners) who have both stepped up to try and help investigate with their expertise. Looking at every possible scenario and reaching out for help where I can.

Thanks for your kind messages also guys, I appreciate that support v much from you all. Hope you're enjoying 2.4!

Yeehaaa! Orange line is ranking. Thanks a bunch google! -_-

So..admittedly, it has been ages since I last dealt with SEO so I'm beyond out of the loop on what it takes to show up on Google nowadays so take all that follows with an ignorant grain of salt but here's a general thought:

Seems we "lost" that keyword. And sounds like it is hard to impossible to climb back up on that one. Makes sense, seeing how the search does instead offer useful alternative results (traderie and such) and hence yields exits before reaching .

Io.

How challenging would it realistically be however, to climb the ranks on other searches that may pull in a similar amount of users instead?

Specifically, I've noticed that if you try to find anything on dclone tracking (with various iterations of search terms), you really only get a bunch of useless crap and outdated ip hunting guides. The tracker here doesn't show up at all (at least not in the first page or two).

What I did find, ironically, is a reddit post from Teeb talking about how the tracker here has been created and exists. So at best, a very indirect link. That was literally the only useful result across multiple pages each on multiple different keyword combinations.

Since IP hunting is a thing of the past and clone hunting is now realistic and hence attractive to everyone (assuming people ever still sell SoJs), managing to get clone tracking related searches to lead here might just make up for the traffic lost from the trade search.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Seems we "lost" that keyword.

Yeah it's only URLs/keywords that I specified in my ad campaign that are affected. Everything else is okay.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

How challenging would it realistically be however, to climb the ranks on other searches that may pull in a similar amount of users instead?

Not effective - this keyword grouping is the most commonly searched by a long way, even over shorthand variations like 'd2r trade'.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Specifically, I've noticed that if you try to find anything on dclone tracking (with various iterations of search terms), you really only get a bunch of useless crap and outdated ip hunting guides. The tracker here doesn't show up at all (at least not in the first page or two).

Yeah, again, not sure what's going on here. I submitted the dclone tracker for indexing and it's not in results, but that is a separate issue and will probably improve over time if people organically share the link to it etc. so not concerned about that.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Since IP hunting is a thing of the past and clone hunting is now realistic and hence attractive to everyone (assuming people ever still sell SoJs), managing to get clone tracking related searches to lead here might just make up for the traffic lost from the trade search.

Yes, was hoping the same, but again the algorithm is super slow to pick up on things sometimes.

It really sucks being an indie creator these days!

People can try the rest, but have Faith that they will eventually find the best. Which is here. In terms of ease of trade, strength of community in terms of knowledge and personality, and interaction with The Boss that runs the site, I can imagine any place coming close.

Totally unbiased assessment.

Teebling wrote: 2 years ago

...

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Since IP hunting is a thing of the past and clone hunting is now realistic and hence attractive to everyone (assuming people ever still sell SoJs), managing to get clone tracking related searches to lead here might just make up for the traffic lost from the trade search.

Yes, was hoping the same, but again the algorithm is super slow to pick up on things sometimes.

It really sucks being an indie creator these days!

Well, that's probably a combination of the algo being slow and people getting used to even looking for clone spawns first. Bound to take a little while for all of that to really take off and possibly provide noteworthy traffic.

Tested on desktop Google search just now.
The price-check page just entered the first page results at the bottom.
The trade landing page is still missing.

Hey Teebs, this really sucks man. You've put so much work into this website and this had to happen right at 2.4 release and shortly before Ladder. I really hope this can get sorted out and fixed before Ladder (or at all for that matter).

Teebling, just searched "trade diablo 2" on Google and your #9 on my results page...

Google Search Console should show you if there are any problems with the site that may have caused delisting.

I've checked it now and... it went down on the second page and now it's 14th result Even

Arreat Summit trade description is higher than actual real market like diablo2.io....