The Mental Game of Niche Sites : Google Updates (Focus!)

Being in the position where you need to recover from a Google update sucks.

I’m busting out this post while being in the midst of a dramatic drop in traffic.

Now is not the time for outright panic.

It’s a time for calm, reflection, and perspective.

In this article, I will share some insights and tips for you so hopefully, your day or month gets better!

have perspective

In my prior life, I used to play online poker professionally, and part and parcel of that line of work was improving your mental game.

I have found many parallels between online poker and niche website building. I have studied both intensively, with the mental aspect being huge.

While studying poker, I came across a book called “The Mental Game of Poker” by Jared Tendler.

Jared was an avid golfer and was coaching some of the top professional PGA golfers about their mental approach to golf.

He then found his teaching from golf transferred over well to pro poker players and decided to write a book covering the topic.

Niche sites, poker, and now golf… get to the point Dan!

You can’t control the cards; you can only control how you play.

The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler

And one, more for good measure

When it’s forecasting rain, and you step outside your house and it’s pouring, does it make sense to get angry?

I’m paraphrasing, but I think this is from the same book

Google updates are a part of the game. To think otherwise is delusional.

We can curse the gods and complain to anyone who will listen, but that doesn’t get you anywhere.

Dust yourself off, take a breath, and let’s move forward with positivity, grit, and determination to bounce back stronger.

Pressure makes diamonds, and the vast majority of winners in our space have been hit by an update and come back. This is how the winners are made.

So what do I do?

I strongly encourage you not to take any drastic action.

These updates can take several weeks to roll out fully.

Take a step back and consider.

• Is the content that you are producing the best it can be?
• Can you improve or update some of your older posts?
• Is there an opportunity to improve your internal linking?
• Have you been following up on those backlink opportunities?

Don’t Take your foot off the gas!

Please, please, continue as you were, for the most part.

Do not get discouraged, and keep publishing!

Some things are eternal for the most part!

More content = More Keywords = More Traffic

If you stop publishing for 3-4 weeks and the update gets reversed, you’ve wasted almost a month feeling sorry for yourself and falling behind your competitors with a better mental game.

New landscapes offer new opportunities.

Once the SERPs have calmed down, the landscape after an update will look slightly different from yesterday’s.

What worked before might not work tomorrow.

Keep yourself tuned into X (Twitter), Search Engine Journal, and Search Engine Land, and see what the aftermath analysis looks like.

There will be new opportunities to take advantage of within the updated algorithm, and it’s your responsibility to keep updated and be ready to pounce.

Like the sun rises and falls, Google updates will continue, and how you react to them will leave the most significant and telling impact!