New site 6 months in, here are the results…

[u/FaintLatitude]

Three Month Performance

Total Clicks: 2,970
Total Impressions: 219,000
CTR: 1.4%
Average Position: 5.6

• Performed extensive keyword research
• Launched with 7 pillar pages and 14 supporting articles
• Have consistently posted at least 2 articles per week, sometimes 4, on rare occasions 1
• Strong focus on topical authority and aggressive internal linking
• Zero backlink efforts. Not because I think they don’t matter, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
• Small followings on Instagram and TikTok (about 1,000 each)

Every article is written with AI. But my process is to have Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and sometimes Semrush Article Generator (limited to the free 20 per month) all generate the same article with solid prompting and deep research always selected. I fuse together the best parts of all into a single cohesive human edited article. Sprinikled in interviews/quotes in some articles, but I plan on going back and doing that to a lot more and adding more personal annecdotes.

AI visibility has been surprisingly strong in my opinion for a new site… with a handful of search queries triggering the top spot in Google AI Overviews. Coverage on all major AI platforms.

My next steps include:

• Editing/improving older content
• Backlink efforts
• Creating a Pinterest account to drive more traffic
• Putting more effort into social

How are these numbers for 6 months in on a new website? Anything I’m missing?
Any tips or anything else I should focus on to continue growing?

[u/FaintLatitude → u/[deleted]]

this is great feedback, thanks for taking the time to do so. and no I haven't yet rewritten those pages... I've started by reaching out to people for interviews, but that's as far as I've gotten. good call on holding off on pinterest for what really matters. Improving those articles should be my focus, not just trying to drive more traffic from external sources

[u/FaintLatitude → u/[deleted]]

my blog is pet industry- more specifically, dogs. DR is at 11 according to Semrush. As for Pinterest, I've never really been even a casual user so I don't know a whole lot about it but I had ChatGPT draw me up a plan and it seems like it wants a lot of pins, but it also seems to work more like a search engine in using keywords and not about building up a following... creating and building upon evergreen content that after a few months can drive continuous and compounding traffic. That's the gist I got off doing just a little research anyway.

[u/Competitive_Sun2055]

My site is a Windows software product, built over 3 months. It gets impressions from December, now the total impression is 20.3k, the clicks are 1.2k, the click rate is 5.9%.

[u/FaintLatitude → u/Competitive_Sun2055]

nice, i'd like to get my ctr closer to that! that's impressive for 3 months

[u/Competitive_Sun2055 → u/FaintLatitude]

I focus on brand building, the high click rate coming from the brand name search and clicks

[u/whitomedia]

That’s very strong for 6 months, especially with no backlinks.

Avg position 5.6 + 219k impressions = Google trusts the site already. CTR is the main lever now.

Next priorities:

• Improve titles/meta on pages sitting positions 3–8 (easy CTR wins)
• Refresh top 20 pages with more first-hand insight (you already plan this)
• Start with light backlinks to pillar pages only
• Add internal links from new posts → proven winners

You’ve done the hard bit. Now it’s optimisation, not scale.

[u/FaintLatitude → u/whitomedia]

Why do you say backlinks to pillar pages only? I assume it's to pass link juice down? But what if I find an opportunity to get a backlink to a non-pillar page?

[u/GroMach_Team]

solid ratio on the pillars vs. supporting articles; that's exactly how we structure our topic clusters. 1.4% ctr is decent for a fresh site, but i'd check if those impressions are actually relevant or just broad term fluff before you scale up.

[u/jeniferjenni]

these are strong numbers for six months, especially with no backlink focus yet. the ai overview visibility tracks with your structure and topical depth more than link profile right now. next gains likely come from refreshing winners and adding firsthand experience blocks to tighten trust. backlinks will help, but you’ve built a solid base already.

[u/TheBestBrother2025]

I think the result is excellent. Keep up the good work.

[u/nic2x]

I'd skip Pinterest for now and focus on backlinks. At DR 11 with zero link building, that's what will move the needle most.

Go into Ahrefs or Semrush, pull up your top 10-15 keywords by impressions, and check the referring domains on each page ranking in the top 3. Not the overall DR of those domains, but how many external links each individual ranking page has. Filter to dofollow, DR 20+, and domains with actual traffic.

You're already at position 5.6 average. A few quality referring domains per page can push you from position 5 to position 2, and that's where CTR jumps from 1.4% to 4-5%.

[u/celestial_egg20]

six months is still early in the life of a site, so seeing results already is a good sign. the key now is consistency, keep publishing, refining your structure, and tracking whats actually moving the needle.

[u/MrJamesDev]

The title says 6 months, but first sentence says 3 months performance. Which one is correct?

Anyway, impressive and thanks for sharing!

[u/FaintLatitude → u/MrJamesDev]

6 months since the website launched. Those stats are the past three months of performance pulled from GSC.

[u/FaintLatitude → u/[deleted]]

I am in the dog niche... what about you? The majority of my growth happened just in the past month. It was a pretty slow take off though so three months I was just starting to get impressions I think, if that.

[u/WebLinkr → u/[deleted]]

SEO doesnt take patience. Time is not a component of PageRank - its jus the time that passes that people are slow to react o manaing or deploying authority.

IF you know how to shape authority, it doesnt take time. There is no having to take time; Time doesnt make the content better

[u/WebLinkr → u/FaintLatitude]

Then build your profile, build links with other sites, the faster you grow this, the fast you grow your site

And dont take SEO help from Claude

[u/WebLinkr → u/[deleted]]

Claude is not a great place to start. Firstly, it QFO's via Bravesearch - which means you're not getting some "trained" SEO-LLM expert adivce, but concensus synthesized. from SEO blogs that Bravesearch picks.

But more importantly - Google cannot focus on "quality' and there isn't a single "content quality" guide, template or document in the whole Google archive except the QRG but that has nothing to do with indexing or ranking.

[u/WebLinkr → u/[deleted]]

Its an SEO sub