RPGSeek–A Human-Verified Role-Playing Game Publisher Search Engine

RPGSeek is a custom Google search engine that only searches a specific list of 371 role-playing publisher websites.  I culled these sites from the combined publisher lists of indiepressrevolution.com, rpgnow.com, drivethrurpg.com, yourgamesnow.com, various Google searches of my own design and a few other resources. This created a combined list of about 500 sites.  I then visited each site and verified that it was functioning, an RPG publisher and had been updated in the past 18 months. Yes, I personally visited all 500+ sites. Once I removed those sites not specifically RPG-publishers, vanity book publishers or simply long dead and gone, I ended up with 371 sites.

Why bother, you ask?

Simple. Searching Google for information about role-playing games and their publishers is often frustrating. General keyword queries pull up fan sites, blogs, Wikipedia, Amazon, PDF sellers like rpgnow.com or some other irrelevant information.  Worse still, you search for a game company and the site has not been updated in 4 years or is completely dead.

Additionally, many publishers I looked at languished so far down the results that only the most dedicated searcher would ever find them. These publishers had no keyword optimization, poor quality incoming links  or other issues that drove them down the Google search results when competing against the entire Google index for ranking. They are, in search terms, small fish in an infinite pond.

To solve the problem, I moved the fish to a very small, finite glass tank.

Now, each and every search result through RPGSeek returns a link to an RPG publisher site. Clean, targeted searching without the irrelevant data for the questing gamer.  I hope you find it useful.

I know there are questions, so here is quick FAQ

0. Wizards of the Coast/wizards.com is not in the index!

A: This was intentional. The WOTC site contains so much high-ranked keyword content that it distorted the RPGSeek results and overwhelmed the smaller companies. Be patient. Did I mention the DNDSeek project I am working on…

1. Who is in the index of sites?

A: I am working on a list to post at a later date, but I would call it “comprehensive.”  For now, if you are curious if a site is in the index, just do a search for the exact website name, ie. www.crafty-games.com and see if it returns a homepage. If it does, then that site is in the index.

2. My beloved RPG publisher is not in the index! How do I get them in?

A: Go to the Livingdice.com contact form and let me know the site address. If it is a  RPG publisher then it will probably go in in a couple of working days. Non-publishers are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, but at this point I am leaning towards publishers of RPG games only.

3. How much does it cost to  submit a site.

A: Inclusion in the index is free.  Though I do sell advertising space on the site, so if you are in a spending mood…

4. Do you index the entire site or just the front page.

A: We utilize all content on the site from the base “www.domain.com” address that the Google content spider can see.

5. Will inclusion in RPGSeek’s index help my search ranking?

A: No. We are not linking to the sites, only searching them.

6. The search page is ugly.

A: I know. I am not the greatest web developer and will be improving it over the next few weeks.

Please use the contact form if you have any further questions.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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trask

Trask is a long-time gamer, world traveler and history buff. He hopes that his scribblings will both inform and advance gaming as a hobby.

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