With the Google algorithm update in September, 80% of the ranking has been restored.

Since March, there had been strange signs, and with the June Google algorithm update, Energy Drink Mania’s domain was completely destroyed. From here, I’ve continued to brush up on the content daily and posted new reviews as usual.

There are still many areas that are lacking, but I was able to strengthen the parts that felt visibly thin. Moving forward, when I have time, I plan to focus on improving the content and making it more understandable to people who don’t know about energy drinks.

Then, with the September algorithm update, Energy Drink Mania has regained about 80% of its rankings. It’s now appearing in news searches and has started showing up in the Chrome app on smartphones and Android’s Discover feature. It seems the filter that was affecting the entire domain has been lifted.

That being said, Google made a shocking announcement. On October 1, Google announced, “To recover from a Google algorithm update, you have no choice but to wait for the next one.”

One of the frequently asked questions after a core update is, how long does it take for a site’s rankings to recover if content is improved? Large-scale core updates tend to happen every few months. If a site is impacted by a core update and content is improved afterward, the ranking recovery is only possible after the next large-scale core update is released.

Quoted from: What webmasters should know about Google’s Core Updates

In other words, once caught by an algorithm update, no matter how much you improve your site, nothing will work until the next update comes. Google is saying that even if you push your site’s improvement to the limit, it won’t recognize it until the next update, and it won’t adjust its evaluation (or can’t adjust it?).

Recently, when looking at energy drink-related search results, news websites, i.e., sites with strong domain power, are quickly pushing articles about new products up to the top, even if the sites aren’t directly related to energy drinks. Even if a website is unrelated to the topic, articles from a site with strong domain power tend to be pushed to the top first. These articles gradually drop as time goes on, but this shows that site theme doesn’t matter much anymore. Current Google search places even more importance on domain power.

What I find a little odd about the algorithm is that, when a new product is launched, by providing products to many news sites and getting them to post reviews, it’s possible to dominate the top positions for several weeks with articles about that new product.

For example, the search results immediately after the release of the Dragon Boost were a disaster. Articles about "trying the new drink" from major news sites took the top spot, and many other sites’ articles occupied the first page. This could be used as a new press release strategy, right? (^_^;)

Google frequently makes mistakes. This time, I took a hit directly, so although I was able to strengthen the thin parts, I didn’t feel that it resulted in a significant improvement in evaluation. Google doesn’t seem to look at the content of the articles that much anymore.

It is important to be aware that search engines like Google understand content in a way that’s different from humans.

Quoted from: What webmasters should know about Google’s Core Updates

What’s good content for humans isn’t necessarily good content for Google. Although Energy Drink Mania doesn’t create a site for Google, I still can’t quite accept this part.

However, this year, while looking at SNS and thinking about things, I realized, “The content that I think will resonate with enthusiasts is actually not understood by most people.” I write about 10% of such niche content, but this needs to change.

So, I’ve decided to set aside the niche content and focus on writing content that even someone who has never heard of energy drinks can understand. I aim to make it so that people who aren’t familiar with energy drinks can understand the article and related topics as much as possible.

This is not an effort aimed at Google; it’s a shift in focus to increase the number of general consumers who are satisfied with the content. I’ll continue to improve in this direction moving forward.