A site about marketing and discovery for indie game developers: how people actually find games, and what a solo dev or small team can do about it without an agency budget. Written by a game dev who does SEO for a living.

Is SEO even worth it for a game, or is it all Steam?

Steam is where most wishlists come from, and nothing here argues otherwise. But Steam's traffic starts once people are already on Steam. Search is how people find you before that — and it's the one channel you own outright, rather than rent from an algorithm.

Marketing & SEO for independents

Independent — and still getting found.

Practical marketing and SEO for people who make things alone: games, art, music, a one-person business. Everything is tested on a real site before it is written up here.

Find your corner Start with the basics

I make…

Something else? The basics work for everyone →

Written for solo game devs/illustrators/photographers/producers/singer-songwriters/potters/Etsy sellers/workshops/one-person studios

What do you make?

Pick your corner. Everything in it is written for how you get found.

Games

Everything on this site about getting a game found, in the order it usually matters: the store page first, then the name, then the people who write about it.

Open the hub →

Art

SEO for artists, in plain words. Feeds decide who sees your work; search doesn't — someone is already typing what you make. This is the part of getting found that keeps working when you stop posting.

The first guides for this corner are in the works. Until then, the basics below apply here too.

Open the hub →

Music

SEO for musicians, in plain words. Streaming shows your music to people who already know it; search reaches the ones who don't — and it keeps working in the quiet months between releases.

The first guides for this corner are in the works. Until then, the basics below apply here too.

Open the hub →

Small business

Not a company with a marketing team — one person who makes something and needs strangers to find it. Most SEO advice isn't written for that. This is.

The first guides for this corner are in the works. Until then, the basics below apply here too.

Open the hub →

Proof, not promises

Every method here runs on a real site first.

Crit Pick is the live case study: built from zero, measured in the open, the small numbers included.

See the case study →

204real visitors, last 7 days

67Google clicks, last 7 days

32visitors from AI assistants, last 7 days

Sources: Ghost Analytics with bot traffic removed, Google Search Console — week of 21–27 Sep 2026, updated every Monday. Zero ad spend. One site, one niche: a worked example, not a promise.

The basics

Three things every independent needs, whatever they make.

01 Website The discovery channel you actually own . Start here → 02 Social media What each platform is actually for . Start here → 03 Community Keeping the people who already found you . Start here →

Fresh from the notebook

All articles →

For game devs When should you make your Steam page? 6 Oct 2026 · 9 min For everyone Crit Pick, three weeks of social: 453,000 views, 71 visits 5 Oct 2026 · 9 min For game devs Steam festivals to year-end: which event is yours, and what it costs to join 2 Oct 2026 · 20 min

Who's writing this

Someone who does SEO for a living

SEO pays my bills, mostly in finance, which is about as cut-throat as search gets. I've also got a game dev degree and studio experience on console projects. The console, unfortunately, never released. SeeIndie is me pointing that skill at everything people make on their own, out loud, so you can copy what works and skip what doesn't. :)

Common questions

What is SeeIndie?

A site about getting found: how people actually discover work online, and what one person or a small team can do about it without an agency budget. For games, art, music and one-person businesses, written by someone who does SEO for a living.

Do I need a marketing budget to use any of this?

No. Nearly everything covered here is free to start: a page people can find, a store or platform page built to convert, and Google Search Console to see who arrives. Paid tools save time once you are serious, they do not unlock the results. The toolbox is sorted free-first for exactly that reason.

Is SEO even worth it, or is it all platforms?

Steam, Bandcamp, Etsy and Instagram are where a lot of the money changes hands, and nothing here argues otherwise. But that traffic only starts once someone is already on the platform. Search is how people find you before that — and it's the one channel you own outright, rather than rent from an algorithm.

How do I know any of this actually works?

Because it's being tested in public. Crit Pick is a gaming site being built and ranked from zero, with the real numbers published as they come in — including the months where nothing happens.

How often do new posts go out?

The newsletter goes out every other week — the short version, no filler. Posts land as they are finished rather than on a schedule, because a padded post to hit a date helps nobody.

Newsletter

The short version, every other week.

One practical discovery tip, plus what I'm testing on the case-study site right now.