The Block
On March 22, 2026, we blocked every Google crawler. Googlebot, Googlebot-Image, Google-Extended, Googlebot-News, Googlebot-Video, Storebot-Google, Google-InspectionTool. We set noindex in our metadata. We submitted removal requests in Search Console. We went full scorched earth.
It felt amazing. Like quitting a job where your boss takes credit for your work. Google was using our structured data to power their AI Overviews and Local results while simultaneously burying us in the organic results. We were feeding the machine that was replacing us.
The Return
We lasted 4 days.
On March 26, we unblocked everything. Not because we forgave Google. Because we’re bootstrapped with zero budget and even scraps from Google’s table are better than starving. That’s the dependency they’ve built. That’s the trap. You can’t leave even when you know you’re being used.
The Lesson
Google will let you in. They’ll let you taste what real organic traffic feels like. They’ll show your pages to 18,000 people a day and watch your analytics light up. And then they’ll pull the rug. Slowly. Methodically. Without explanation or apology.
They’ll do this while their documentation tells you to "create helpful, reliable, people-first content." While their blog posts preach E-E-A-T and quality signals. While their spokespeople say the algorithm rewards the best results. It’s all theater. The algorithm rewards whatever Google wants it to reward, and what Google wants is for you to stay small enough to not compete with their own products.
We built something genuinely better than what Google Maps, Yelp, and every other discovery platform offers for NYC venues. 28,000 profiles with GPS-verified data, real hours, vibe tags, insider tips, structured Schema.org markup. Google’s response was to give us a month of traffic and then bury us behind a Yelp page that hasn’t been updated since 2021.
So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to keep building. We’re going to keep publishing this data — every single day — so everyone can see exactly how Google treats indie platforms. And we’re going to find every possible way to reach people that doesn’t depend on a trillion-dollar company’s permission.
This series continues daily. Follow along.