A few months back, this would have landed D&D Beyond "Magic Missile" spell page at the top of the results.
Now, it's not even in the top 3, and is buried well, well under "People also ask"
Search in Google:
"dndbeyond magic missile"
The "FORUM DISCUSSIONS* about that spell outranks the spells listing, which is now a whopping 8th...quite buried. That's bad.
Only if I do a *very* targeted search will I get what I want, such as:
"dndbeyond magic missile spell"
At first I thought this was some rando at Google punishing you for the OGL fiasco, but no, this second search proves this is SEO gone wrong, as your OWN content is outranking your OWN content that it should not. When it *used* to work and no longer does, that's a telltale sign of SEO gone bad.
If I had to guess, somebody started a new SEO campaign or approach a few weeks ago, and it has made your stuff LESS SEARCHABLE, not more.
For *months* "dnd <spellname>" would return D&D Beyond Spell page. For a few spells, rarely, it still does. Such as "dnd Gate". That works as expected.
However, try:
"dnd fireball"
"dnd plane shift"
There's nothing you can do about Page Rank ranking others above you. However, you have control over your own stuff outranking your own stuff which should be higher priority. That can be fixed.
It seems what has happened is you've diluted your own searches within Page Rank, and now the stuff that people are MOST likely looking for, are buried among newly indexed and campaigned areas. If so that was a good idea gone bad in implementation. Fortunately, it is easily fixed.
I think maybe Google is delivering tailored results based on your own search history. If I search Magic Missile, the spell listing on D&D Beyond is the second result
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Things are better with Incognito (which can't possibly use your search history), but things definitely changed recently. Spells are still buried for the most part unless you specify "spell" or "spells".
It's not a huge deal, I just wanted to make sure Staff was aware just inc ase somebody at WotC / DDB changed their approach to SEO and inadvertently made things worse.
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This all broke about 2-3 weeks ago.
Search in Google:
"dnd magic missile"
A few months back, this would have landed D&D Beyond "Magic Missile" spell page at the top of the results.
Now, it's not even in the top 3, and is buried well, well under "People also ask"
Search in Google:
"dndbeyond magic missile"
The "FORUM DISCUSSIONS* about that spell outranks the spells listing, which is now a whopping 8th...quite buried. That's bad.
Only if I do a *very* targeted search will I get what I want, such as:
"dndbeyond magic missile spell"
At first I thought this was some rando at Google punishing you for the OGL fiasco, but no, this second search proves this is SEO gone wrong, as your OWN content is outranking your OWN content that it should not. When it *used* to work and no longer does, that's a telltale sign of SEO gone bad.
If I had to guess, somebody started a new SEO campaign or approach a few weeks ago, and it has made your stuff LESS SEARCHABLE, not more.
For *months* "dnd <spellname>" would return D&D Beyond Spell page. For a few spells, rarely, it still does. Such as "dnd Gate". That works as expected.
However, try:
"dnd fireball"
"dnd plane shift"
There's nothing you can do about Page Rank ranking others above you. However, you have control over your own stuff outranking your own stuff which should be higher priority. That can be fixed.
It seems what has happened is you've diluted your own searches within Page Rank, and now the stuff that people are MOST likely looking for, are buried among newly indexed and campaigned areas. If so that was a good idea gone bad in implementation. Fortunately, it is easily fixed.
I think maybe Google is delivering tailored results based on your own search history. If I search Magic Missile, the spell listing on D&D Beyond is the second result
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Mine's the first result.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Things are better with Incognito (which can't possibly use your search history), but things definitely changed recently. Spells are still buried for the most part unless you specify "spell" or "spells".
It's not a huge deal, I just wanted to make sure Staff was aware just inc ase somebody at WotC / DDB changed their approach to SEO and inadvertently made things worse.