As of right now, you may have heard how Google is killing independent websites. If not, the short version of the story is the recent updates of the search engine wiped out the search traffic of many websites as Google pushes ads and AI Answers on the top of their results pages. Google Search has evolved to no longer be a proper search engine, as its primary focus is to retain users within its own ecosystem (and selling its own products).
Without surprise, Comic Book Treasury has been massively affected by those recent events. Compared to last year, we have lost more than 50% of our traffic and we are still decreasing — and to be fair, we are a small website! It could also be worse, as our sister site Howtoread.me (owned by Fabien) has been part of those who lost 95% of their traffic.
I also have to acknowledge that the timing couldn’t be worse, as the Superhero Comic Book Industry is not in great shape right now. The market is down and things are evolving. These are always turbulent times.
Even though I’ve been working on the web for more than 15 years now (although not in the comic book niche), I have never been SEO-Savvy. Trying to make sense of DC Continuity is easier for me than doing the same with all the rules you have to follow to attract traffic and readers (and let’s not talk about social media, I’m so bad at it!).
Writing articles that are useful for the readers is what I try to do. I received in the past e-mails from readers telling me that Comic Book Treasury helped them as they were new comic book readers. Or that such an article was interesting. It always makes me happy.
With that said, what does it mean for the future of Comic Book Treasury? I won’t beat around the bush, the future is looking bleak. But like many other independent website owners, we’re not ready to give up yet.
I would like to say that I have a definitive plan, but I would be lying. We have articles ready to be published – for a little bit of teasing, we have a Darkseid Reading Order, A Magick Reading Order, or an article about the history and legacy of Crisis on Infinite Earths among other things.
We continue to update the many reading orders already published and like Marvel or DC, some of them have become quite convoluted and we would like to improve that! Recently, we have updated Hulk, Batman Infinite Frontier, The Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott, Superior Spider-Man, Nick Spencer’s Spider-Man, From Crisis to Crisis: A DC Comics Reading Order, and the Alien/Predator guide.
At the start of the year, I launched a newsletter. Nothing fancy as it is more about informing of recent reading orders, published articles, and updates. I’m unsure when I will send the next one, as we need to reevaluate many things for the website.
With all that said, we are always eager to hear from you! What do you like the most about Comic Book Treasury and what you would like us to add? Is there a type of articles that is sorely missing on the site? What questions about comic books would you like us to answer? And more!
Shoot us an e-mail, leave a comment, or contact us on Facebook, Twitter/X, or even Instagram! We are also grateful for any share of our articles or links, as it helps Comic Book Treasury be more visible. I also just created an account on League of Comic Book Geeks (also known as the Letterboxd of Comic Books), if you’re on it!
To conclude on a more positive note, we do love what we do at Comic Book Treasury, we love to read comics (old and new), think the World of Comic Books is generally great and fun, and we are invested in helping people have the best reading experience possible! So thank you to everyone checking our little website!
