A Google ad penalty halved our revenue; fixing it meant becoming a publisher
A developer of a free online planning poker tool saw their ad revenue drop by half after Google's algorithm penalized the site for lacking editorial content. To recover, the developer restructured the site to include more text-based content, effectively transitioning the tool into a publisher.
Why it matters
This illustrates the challenges small developers face with automated ad-tech systems that prioritize content-heavy sites over functional web tools.
I run a small, free planning poker tool — Scrum Poker Online . Teams open a room, share a link, and vote on story-point estimates. No signup, no setup. It has run quietly for years, funded entirely by ads. Not a business with a roadmap and a team — a side project that happened to cover its own costs and a little more.
The article is a personal account of a technical and business challenge, focusing on the developer's experience with ad platforms.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in