Summary

The article outlines five key indicators of a new website's rapid growth: regular publication of optimized content, increasing website impressions, growing traffic, natural acquisition of backlinks, and successful indexing by Google.

Abstract

The author, a marketer and website owner, shares insights on recognizing a new website's successful growth by monitoring specific metrics. The first sign is the consistent production of fresh, optimized content, which is crucial for visibility and engagement. An increase in impressions, as tracked by Google Search Console, indicates effective SEO strategies and broader reach. Growing traffic is another positive signal, reflecting improved search rankings and effective user acquisition tactics. Natural backlink generation is a strong endorsement of content quality and contributes to higher domain authority. Lastly, proper indexing by Google ensures that content is discoverable in search results. These factors collectively serve as reliable indicators of a website's growth trajectory and health.

Opinions

The author emphasizes the importance of regularly updating a website with new content to maintain relevance and visibility, suggesting that even established websites must continue this practice to avoid being deemed 'dead' by Google.
They highlight the significance of fresh content by noting Google's preference for up-to-date information, as evidenced by the presence of time-sensitive search results.
The author uses their own website, Self Made Millennials, as a case study to illustrate the growth in impressions and traffic, which they attribute to targeting keywords with potential and creating optimized content.
They stress that a healthy backlink profile is indicative of a growing website, with a steady increase in backlinks being preferable to erratic spikes or drops.
The author points out that indexing issues can hinder a website's growth, and it is essential to monitor and resolve these issues promptly to ensure content is accessible to Google's crawlers and, by extension, to users conducting searches.
They advocate for patience and persistence in website management, acknowledging that it may take years for a website to become a stable source of income.
The author encourages readers to support writers by joining Medium through their referral link, which also provides full access to every story on the platform for a monthly fee.

5 Signs Your New Website Is Growing Fast

Based on running several mature and brand new websites, including my own.

You’ve launched a website. Now, what?

The majority will wonder what steps to undertake to make it grow. However, it’s incredibly challenging to predict how a new website will perform, even for an expert.

I worked on several new and established websites, observing how different strategies impact their performance.

One website took off in roughly six months, while the second showed the first positive results in years, despite applying the same proven strategies.

How to know if you do your job well and your website will make it in time?

As a marketer and website owner, let me share some expert tips and observations.

1. You regularly publish new optimized content

Like a tree requires sunshine and water, any website needs new pages to grow.

New content means more chances to reach the target audience, higher visibility in search, and broader business opportunities.

Google knows that users want to see fresh and relevant results. Therefore, it often favors new content. Need proofs? Just google anything to check the dates on the first search result page.

For instance, here is what Google shows for the “best smartphones 2022” search query.

Google search results for the keyword “best smartphones 2022.”

The top-ranking search results are time-sensitive.

You won’t get much from Google if your content is not fresh.

However, it’s not only the case for the time-sensitive content. If you don’t update your existing pages with new and helpful information, Google might think your website is dead and downgrade it in search.

Having new content on your website is a powerful signal to users and Google that your website is alive.

Therefore, keep publishing new content on your website to make it grow. If you can’t make it daily, do weekly or monthly.

Consistency matters. So does the quality!

2. Your website’s impressions are growing

According to Google, an impression means that a user has seen (or potentially seen) your website’s link.

Even if users click on the first-page search results, but your website links show up on the second page or below, it still counts as an impression.

If your website’s impressions are increasing, it’s a sign that you apply the right strategies that help your website grow.

I launched Self Made Millennials in July 2021. It’s my website that I’ve been running as a side hustle. Yet, it has accumulated over 60k impressions by March 2022 and continues getting at least 1k impressions daily. Here is proof from my Google Search Console account:

My website impressions and click from Google Search Console

I achieved these results by targeting keywords with search traffic potential and creating optimized content.

Any healthy website with fresh and optimized content will show growth of impression.

Growing impressions means Google shows your website for more and more users’ search queries. You do your job well. Keep working on new optimized content!

3. Your website’s traffic is growing

I started my website with zero traffic, like everyone.

Six months later, my website steadily gets 1000+ organic visits monthly and growing.

Like impressions, traffic is a powerful sign that shows whether your website is growing or quietly dying.

Growing traffic means:

More users stumble upon your website links on search or elsewhere on the Internet.
Your website pages could rank in the top ten.
Some user acquisition strategies you try work well.
In general, your website is growing.

A significant drop in traffic might indicate that your web pages lost their search rankings, your content is poorly optimized, or Google applied a penalty (worst case scenario).

Therefore, keep an eye on your website’s traffic in Google Analytics. It is a reliable sign of your website’s growth.

4. People naturally link to your website

Backlinks serve as “votes,” indicating that people actually like what you have on your website.

The number of backlinks is one out of numerous factors Google uses to rank websites on search.

The more backlinks your website has > the higher the DR (domain rank) > the higher the Google rankings.

As a website owner, I know that it’s hard to make someone link to your content, even if it’s good. That’s why content creators often mention the source of information without linking to it.

I recommend checking your website’s backlink profile to understand whether your website attracts them naturally or you should do outreach instead.

I use the free Ahref’s Webmaster tool. Even though its functionality is limited, you can see and track your website’s backlinks.

A healthy backlink profile of a growing website will look this way:

I should make a few remarks regarding my website’s backlink profile:

I did not do link building for my website until February 2022.
Most backlinks you see above are acquired naturally.

Rapid backlink spikes and sharp decreases are two alarming signs that you should pay attention to.

On the other hand, if your website’s backlinks number is steadily growing, it’s valid proof that your website succeeds. All you should do at this stage is track existing backlinks and acquire new ones.

5. No issues with indexing

If a web page is indexed, it means it has been visited by Google crawler, and it now can show up on Google search.

Surprisingly, it’s not enough to publish a blog post and assume it will perform well one day.

If a web page is not indexed, it won’t be shown in search results.

Therefore, it’s essential to track your website’s performance on Google and check newly published content for any indexing issues.

An indexed page gets a “URL is on Google” notification in Google Search Console. I’ve got this message a day after I published my Vocal review.

Alternatively, you can get the following messages that will indicate your website page is not on Google:

Discovered — not indexed.
Crawled — not indexed.
Excluded by ‘no index’ tag.
Not found (404).
A complete list is here.

Issues with indexability won’t let your website grow and rank on Google. Even if you keep publishing new content, Google might exclude it from search. You don’t want this to happen.

Some of my pages suffered from the “discovered — not indexed” issues for a while. I had to rewrite the content, fix technical issues and resubmit the URLs to get them on Google.

If all your essential website pages are on Google — congrats! Your website can compete for rankings and be discovered by users online.

On the other hand, if you have issues with indexing — you better start fixing them asap!

Final thoughts

A well-performing website is a luring business opportunity.

Many people want to benefit from its monetization, but they are not ready to be patient enough to see it growing.

Without exaggeration, it might take years before your website becomes a stable income source.

If you wonder whether your website is growing and if you should keep pushing it further, check the following:

If you regularly publish new content.
If impressions are growing.
If website traffic is growing.
If people link to your website naturally.
If you experience any issues with indexability.

Be patient, keep working, and you’ll make it!

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