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This is the first part of a series. I plan to publish a post for each of what I consider the most important aspects of game marketing. If you find this helpful, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

How do you plan to get your game noticed? Where should you direct most of your marketing efforts?

It’s probably the most important non-development question devs can ask themselves. With enough talent and hard work, you can make a quality game. But getting noticed involves a long incubation period, careful planning and sometimes a streak of blind luck.

There are many channels for expanding your scope and ensuring consumers who want to find your game definitely can, and those who like similar games can find yours.

So what can you do to position your game?

My favorite answer lies in what I call the Big Three.

Your game’s website

Your developers’ blog

Social media outlets

The Big Three are the main ingredients in your game’s SEO and ability to be found. I’ve discussed Search Engine Optimization before on IndieWatch.net but that article really focused on Google. In reality, SEO goes far beyond the search engine.

More and more, Google is being refined to more closely resemble human preferences for locating content. Unlike SEO of a few years ago, optimization involves appealing to human curiosity and interest rather than stuffing keywords into your posts. In other words, if Google likes your game, there’s a better chance than ever that gamers will like it too.

Only a few people need to see your game.

The goal here is not to get consumers to stumble across your game. That probably won’t happen. The Big Three aren’t intended to attract the entire internet. Rather, you want to attract and impress influencers who will link to your website, mention to their own audiences how impressive your game looks and share your progress.

If your game shows true promise, and you obey the laws of SEO, everything will be perfect!

Naw, I’m just kidding. Even if you do everything right, it still might go to hell. The best you can do is utilize the Big Three to the best of your ability and hope it works.

Or better yet, hire professionals with wide and varied connections that can get your game blasted and noticed. But then again, if you had a budget for marketing, you probably wouldn’t be reading this. So never mind. We’ll cover more in the next post.