Over the past few months, I've been building a gaming website focused on Elden Ring guides, calculators, and tools.

While the project started as a simple hobby, it quickly became an interesting experiment in SEO, content strategy, and web development.

Here are some lessons I learned along the way.

Building the Site Was Easier Than Getting Traffic

Launching a website with Next.js was straightforward.

Getting visitors was much harder.

Many developers underestimate how competitive search traffic can be, especially in gaming niches where large sites already dominate search results.

Publishing a website is only the first step.

Why I Chose Next.js

The project uses:

Next.js
TypeScript
React
Tailwind CSS

The biggest advantage was SEO.

Server-side rendering and static generation helped ensure that search engines could easily crawl and index pages.

Performance was also excellent compared to many traditional CMS solutions.

Tools Attract Different Users Than Articles

One interesting discovery was that calculators and interactive tools behave differently from standard content pages.

For example:

Guides answer questions.
Tools solve problems.

A player may read a guide once, but they might return to a calculator dozens of times while planning different character builds.

This makes tools valuable long-term traffic assets.

Internal Linking Matters More Than Expected

When new content was published, internal links helped search engines discover and understand related pages.

For example:

Build guides linked to calculators.
Calculator pages linked to stat guides.
Stat guides linked to weapon builds.

This created a stronger topical structure around the Elden Ring ecosystem.

Search Traffic Takes Time

One of the biggest lessons was patience.

Many pages received:

Zero impressions
Zero clicks
No rankings

for days or even weeks.

Then suddenly search impressions started increasing as Google tested pages across different queries.

Traffic growth was rarely linear.

Content Clusters Work Well

Instead of publishing random articles, focusing on related topics produced better results.

Examples include:

Bleed builds
Moonveil builds
Soft caps
Rune calculators
Build planning

As more supporting content was added, rankings became more stable.

Monitoring Data Is Important

Google Search Console became one of the most valuable tools during development.

It helped answer questions such as:

Which keywords generate impressions?
Which pages are gaining visibility?
Which topics deserve additional content?

Without data, SEO becomes guesswork.

The Project

One of the main tools developed for the site is an Elden Ring Build Calculator that allows players to plan character stats and experiment with different builds.

Project link:

https://www.zosygo.com/elden-ring/tools/build-calculator

Final Thoughts

Building a gaming website is not only a content challenge but also a technical challenge.

It combines:

Development
SEO
UX design
Content strategy

For developers looking for a side project, gaming tools can be an excellent way to learn while creating something genuinely useful for a community.

The most important lesson?

Keep building, keep publishing, and give search engines time to understand what your website is about.