![[Title] Shimanami Kaido Cycling – 2022 Website Year-in-Review Report](https://touring-shimanami.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/rep2022e-ogp.png)
*This article is an English translation of a Japanese report published in 2023.
Hello. I’m Kawai Yuki, a cyclist living in the Shimanami Kaido area. In this post, I’d like to share a look back at how my website has been growing.
A Year of Trial and Error, and Weekend Research Rides
Thank you so much for visiting Shimanami Cycling Tips throughout 2022.
To everyone who has visited this site, I want to start by expressing my heartfelt gratitude. Whether you found this page while planning a cycling trip to Shimanami Kaido, or turned to it when you needed help along the way — knowing that it was useful to you makes me happier than anything.
For this website, 2022 was truly the year it got off the ground.
It actually started back around 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to more remote work in my life, which meant more free time — and more time spent cycling around Shimanami Kaido. During that period, I began writing diary-style posts about my rides on a free blogging platform.
When I was researching Shimanami Kaido for my own cycling plans, I found it hard to come across one well-organized, comprehensive website. Government-affiliated official sites seemed unable to feature specific shops or businesses (similar to how public broadcasters can’t promote commercial brands), and many pages out there felt like they had simply aggregated Instagram posts without any real firsthand experience behind them.
So I decided to shift direction — from casual cycling diary to a proper site dedicated to sharing firsthand information about Shimanami Kaido. In 2021, I migrated and polished several key articles from my old blog and launched Shimanami Cycling Tips on WordPress. Setting up a server, registering a domain — there was a lot I was doing for the first time, and it was both nerve-wracking and exciting. I then closed down the old diary blog.
As I began writing more articles, the thing I kept coming back to was a simple desire: to deliver the real, lived atmosphere of this place along with up-to-date information. I hadn’t been in the habit of taking photos on rides, so I got a new camera specifically for the blog and set off for the islands of Shimanami Kaido almost every weekend. From the top of Kurushima Kaikyo Bridge, from beneath Tatara Bridge, along the coastal road on Mukaishima — I spent the year on repeated research rides, snapping photos, checking the latest information on shops, and cycling the routes myself to verify everything firsthand.
It’s not the most glamorous work, but I believe that this kind of steady, boots-on-the-ground information is what sets this site apart. I managed to publish around 30 articles in 2022. There’s still a lot I haven’t covered yet — I’m very aware of that — but I feel like the core foundation of articles on Shimanami Kaido cycling is starting to take shape.
2022 in Numbers
To be honest, when I first launched the site, I was anxious about how many people would actually read it. This is a highly specialized, local, niche-topic website run entirely by one person. In the early days, I’d watch the analytics dashboard and the numbers barely moved.
Still, after a year of consistently writing articles, the total annual user count for 2022 came to 37,764. For a site still in its early stages, that’s far more visitors than I had ever imagined, and I was genuinely surprised — and deeply encouraged.
| Item | 2022 Results | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Users | 37,764 | A remarkable number of visitors for a newly launched site. |
| Mobile (Smartphone) | 27,375 | Around 70% of the total. Likely used largely for on-the-go reference during visits. |
| Desktop (PC) | 9,600 | Used for careful trip planning before departure. |
| Tablet | 1,186 | — |
What I found particularly interesting was the breakdown by device. About 70% of all visitors were accessing the site from a smartphone. My first thought when I saw that number was: people are actually pulling up this page while they’re out there on Shimanami Kaido.
Not just people planning their trip from a computer at home, but also cyclists out on the road — checking their route, wondering which bus to transfer to — opening this site on their phones in the moment. If this site is genuinely being relied upon out in the field, I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Monetization Has Been… Challenging
At the same time, monetization proved to be quite a challenge. I tried Amazon affiliate links for the first time — recommending items useful for cycling Shimanami Kaido, like sunscreen and saddle covers, along with cycling guidebooks. The first time I earned anything, it was barely pocket money, but I was still genuinely happy to receive it. However, when you factor in website hosting costs and research expenses, I’m still running at a considerable loss overall. I’ve thought about tip-style donation systems and Google AdSense ads, but ultimately, I want as many people as possible to be able to read the content freely — so making articles paid isn’t something I’m looking to do.
Top 5 Most-Read Articles of the Year
Out of roughly 30 articles published in 2022, here are the five that drew the most readers.
| Rank | Article Title | Page Views |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | [Lunch Guide] Seafood & Local Casual Favorites on Shimanami Kaido Cycling… | 13,824 PV |
| 2nd | [Complete Guide] Shimanami Kaido Cycling — Even First-Time Solo Female Riders Can Do It!… | 6,708 PV |
| 3rd | [Bus Guide] Shimanami Kaido Bus Routes — How to Travel from Imabari to Onomichi… | 3,658 PV |
| 4th | [Ferry Guide] Shimanami Kaido Ferry Routes — Taking Your Bike on a Boat… | 3,368 PV |
| 5th | [Shimanami Kaido 2-Day Model Course] How to Complete the Route in Two Days Even as a Beginner… | 2,366 PV |
The lunch guide took first place by a wide margin, drawing more than twice the page views of the second-ranked article.
Honestly, it wasn’t a result I had expected. I had assumed that technical cycling advice and detailed route information would be what people wanted most. But thinking about it more, for someone looking forward to a trip along Shimanami Kaido, figuring out where to eat and what to try is actually a huge part of the excitement.
Fresh seafood from the Seto Inland Sea, lemon-infused sweets, the citrus fruits that Ehime is so well known for — food is absolutely one of the highlights of any trip here. This result reminded me just how important eating well is to cyclists and travelers alike.
On the other hand, I was also struck by the rankings of the bus guide at 3rd and the ferry guide at 4th. The fact that these articles get so many visits suggests that many people are worried about what to do if they can’t make it all the way by bike, and whether there’s a way to stop and take public transport if needed.
For first-timers who want to give Shimanami Kaido a try but aren’t sure they have the stamina to complete the full route, knowing that buses and ferries are an option provides a real sense of reassurance — and that can be the nudge they need to take the plunge. I was reminded that bus and ferry information is valuable from the very start of the planning stage, as a safety net that makes the whole adventure feel more approachable.
Traffic Source Analysis
I also looked back at the data on where visitors were coming from.
| Traffic Source | Sessions | Trends & Observations |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search | 25,188 | The main pipeline for information-seekers. Likely driven by searches like “Shimanami Kaido beginner.” |
| Yahoo! Search | 13,200 | Same as above. A sign that search engines are gradually starting to take notice of the site. |
| Direct Access | 4,818 | Visits from bookmarks and direct URLs. A sign of returning readers who keep coming back. |
| Twitter (t.co) | 3,749 | Sharing weekend research ride updates on Twitter has been a good entry point to the site. |
| Bing Search | 2,585 | — |
Not surprisingly, the vast majority of traffic comes through search engines like Google and Yahoo!. I imagine most visitors found the site by searching for terms like “Shimanami Kaido cycling beginner” or “Shimanami Kaido lunch.” If the search engines are gradually starting to trust the site more, it feels like all the time spent steadily writing articles has been worth it.
It was also personally encouraging to see Twitter (now X) show up as the fourth-largest traffic source.
I launched accounts on X and Instagram in December 2021, and throughout 2022 I worked on running both social media channels alongside the website. The idea was to share timely content on social media — photos from weekend research rides, current seasonal conditions, changes in sunset times — and then guide people from there to the more detailed articles on the site.
Seeing the numbers reflect this feels like the circle of readers coming through social media is slowly expanding. I’ve kept going with the belief that combining real-time social media posts with in-depth article content is the best way to be useful to as many people as possible.
My Commitment to Readability in the Field
A little behind-the-scenes detail: readability is something I put a lot of thought into when building this site.
As the access data touched on earlier suggests, many people open this site on their smartphones mid-ride. I write with that scenario in mind: bright outdoor sunlight, helmet still on, sweaty fingers scrolling through the page.
That’s why I put so much emphasis on putting the key point first. Making sure headers give you a clear sense of the content at a glance, organizing important information visually with bullet points, keeping sentences short for easy reading rhythm — I believe these small, steady efforts add up to pages that are quick to read and immediately useful, even when you’re tired mid-ride.
I’ve also been working on improving page load speeds. Even in areas on the islands where mobile connectivity can be unreliable, I want pages to open as quickly as possible, so I’ve been steadily optimizing images and making other behind-the-scenes adjustments. It’s the kind of unglamorous technical work that isn’t visible to anyone reading the page, but I keep at it because I hope it takes just a little bit of friction out of the experience for readers who are relying on the site in the field.
Delivering Information That Gets to the Details That Matter
Over the course of 2022, I published around 30 articles forming the foundational core of the site — covering everything from lunch recommendations and public transport to model courses. I feel like the essential information for planning a Shimanami Kaido cycling trip is now mostly in place.
This is a result of continuing to ride and gather information around Shimanami Kaido almost every weekend. It’s been unglamorous, painstaking work — but if I’ve managed to deliver the kind of firsthand information that can only come from actually being there, it was all worthwhile.
In 2023, I’d like to build on that foundation and go deeper into more niche topics: cold-weather gear for winter cycling, lesser-known spots that haven’t been covered much yet, how to make the most of e-bikes now that they’re becoming more common, and more. My goal is to thoughtfully deliver the kind of information that people want once they’ve got the basics down — the “I understand the outline, but I’d love to know more” stage.
I hope that everyone who relies on this site when exploring Shimanami Kaido has a trip that’s fun, safe, and leaves them thinking, “I’m so glad I came.” I want to keep being the kind of honest, reliable guide that quietly encourages you from behind as you take on the challenge.
I look forward to continuing to share this journey with you in 2023. Thank you for your support of Shimanami Cycling Tips.
On this page, I’ve looked back on a year of running Shimanami Cycling Tips, with a look at the Google Analytics data along the way. I hope that what I share here is helpful for planning a Shimanami Kaido cycling trip — and maybe even the push someone needs to give it a try.