Google hit my site. 📉 Here's how I'm fighting back

I hope you had a great week and that your weekend is off to a good start. 😊

Last week, I shared what I've been seeing with Google's January 2026 update, which started around January 20 and is still going strong.

According to Semrush Sensor, keyword ranking volatility has been at nearly maximum levels for the past few weeks. And still, no word from Google about what's happening.

Honestly, I've never seen anything like this in almost 10 years of digital marketing experience.

I don't know about your niche, but for some of my target keywords in SEO, I've seen a complete shift in the top 10 results within just a few days. Pages completely drop from the top ten, then suddenly show up again. You can't predict what's going to happen next.

Since there's no official response from Google about what's happening lately, some SEO experts say this is Google's way of dealing with low-quality and AI-generated content.

I'm doubting this hypothesis because some of the new search results I've seen for my target keywords are neither helpful nor human.

But even helpful content from known brands is getting hit.

Below, you can see how fast Ahrefs has been losing organic traffic over the past year, and the trend is nowhere near positive.

And it's not only Ahrefs! Many other top players in the industry have been negatively affected since the beginning of 2026, including Search Atlas, Writesonic, and even HubSpot.

Clearly, Google has been experimenting with search results, and we're all trying to figure out what "helpful" content means in this new AI and SEO era.

Unlike the entire 2025, this year my website got impacted, and I could feel the negative hit on traffic and revenue.

After reviewing impacted pages, I noticed a clear pattern: 👇

Last year, I worked on reviewing newsletter platforms, which brought me significant revenue from sponsorships. The strategy to leverage my high-performing website and trustworthiness worked... but only temporarily.

My expertise in SEO and reputation built on Reddit, LinkedIn (almost 4k followers), and Medium (21k followers) helps me maintain high rankings for SEO-related posts on my site, but only with fresh, helpful content.

Here's what I did to recover my best money-making post on AI SEO tools and bring it back to the top 3 positions.

It's worth noting that my article ranked #1 for many AI SEO-related keywords for almost the entire 2025.

Since the article ranked so well, I didn't want to make any changes. In my experience, this can only make things worse.

But January 20th 2026 hit hard...

You can see how big the drop was before the page started recovering due to multiple attempts on my part.

My article is back in the top 3 for the target keyword "AI SEO tools" and for many related keywords in the USA. This happened as a result of prompt actions from my side.

I honestly believe my article can outperform those two results above, but it will take time.

You may be wondering what I did to bring a poorly performing article back to the top.

There are a few things that worked.

First, I updated the title of the article because most top-ranking posts started copying my style and naming their posts "X AI SEO tools we've tested in 2026."

Imagine landing on a search results page where all meta titles are almost the same. Yeah, that's exactly what I saw!

As a user, I had no motivation to open any page since they all promised the same thing: top AI SEO tools I should try!

So, for my article, I did exactly the opposite!

I wrote about the AI SEO tools that don't work and aren't worth your attention.

Here's what it looks like:

I also updated around 50% of the article, including:

I added Ubersuggest to the list of tools and deleted a few old tools that I don't think were a good fit.

I barely paid attention to the keywords! Surprising, right?

Instead of obsessing over keywords and keyword variations, I updated the FAQ section with questions that seem to trigger AI Overviews.

The positive impact after the update was almost immediately visible. I'm following the same process when updating other high-performing posts, such as Ahrefs alternatives and AI marketing tools.

This works because I focus on sharing genuinely helpful content with users, along with my unique SEO expertise that they won't find elsewhere.

If your website was impacted, try updating the content that matters most to your business. I'm sure you'll see a positive impact after the update.

On February 12th, I cancelled my subscription to the Writesonic Professional plan for $249.

I've shared my in-depth, honest take in my Writesonic review post, but here are some brief thoughts in case you're wondering if it's worth it.

Asking users to pay $249/month for an AI + SEO + content tool is honestly too much, considering how the tool works and what you get.

There's no traditional SEO toolkit with reports and competitor analysis functionality inside.

Instead, you have an SEO agent that can answer all kinds of SEO questions. It's good on one hand, since you can ask AI agents all kinds of questions about your website performance, competitors, and more!

However, you should know that Writesonic is powered by Ahrefs data, and Ahrefs' traffic and keyword metrics are way off.

Pretty much every SEO analysis that Writesonic conducted was based on Ahrefs data. Then why pay $249 for Writesonic when you can get Ahrefs for as little as $129/month, including its AI SEO solution, Brand Radar?

The quality of the generated content wasn’t up to my standards, even after providing multiple instructions and examples of my writing style. Using the same prompt, Claude does a much better job.

On the positive note, I liked their AI features and reports, which I think are the best in terms of value and clarity among many tools I've used.

However, I still believe paying $249 isn't worth it for me.

Have you used Writesonic? Curious about your take. 👀

My in-depth guide on topical authority and how to build it is finally live. 🙌

I asked my audience on LinkedIn about how they build topical authority for their own websites and their clients. It’s always so interesting to learn about what other SEO experts are doing.

To my surprise, I got quite a few comments under my post and DMs with super detailed responses.

If you’re curious about how to actually build topical authority (not just talk about it), here’s my pos:👇

The update is still ongoing, but you can already check my most popular editions in the highlights:

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions, with zero brand partnerships.

If you are interested in learning:

Here’s what’s inside:

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That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria