What Google Search Console Told Me After Month 1
I want to show you something that most bloggers won’t show you.
The real numbers. The early numbers. The numbers from before anything is working.
A month into the new version of this blog, I opened Google Search Console and took a screenshot of everything. Not because the numbers are impressive — they’re not — but because I think there’s value in documenting what a brand new blog actually looks like from the inside.
So here it is.
First — What Is Google Search Console?
If you’re not familiar, Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that shows you how your site is performing in search results. It tells you:
How many times your pages appeared in search results (impressions). How many times people actually clicked on your site (clicks). Your average position in search results. Which search queries are bringing people to your site.
It’s the closest thing to an honest look at whether Google knows you exist.
The Numbers After Month One
Here’s what Search Console showed me after the first month of the reset:
Total clicks: Single digits. Almost entirely from people who already knew the site existed — not organic search traffic.
Total impressions: A few hundred. This means Google showed my pages in search results a few hundred times — but almost nobody clicked.
Average CTR (Click-Through Rate): Very low. Under 1%. Which makes sense — when you’re appearing in position 40+ for a search query, almost no one scrolls that far.
Average position: Mostly between 30 and 60 for the handful of queries where I was showing up at all.
In plain terms: Google knows the site exists. It’s showing some of my pages in search results. But I’m buried deep enough that almost no one is finding me yet.
This is completely normal for a new site. I knew this going in. But seeing it laid out in the dashboard still makes it real in a way that just knowing it intellectually doesn’t.
What Queries Am I Showing Up For?
This is the interesting part.
The queries where my posts were getting at least some impressions were variations of things like: blogging with a full time job, side hustles for dads, honest blogging income report, deleting blog posts and starting over.
None of these are high-volume keywords. Nobody is searching “side hustles for dads” millions of times a month. But they’re specific, they’re real, and they’re exactly the kind of searches that my content is actually written for.
That tells me the targeting is right, even if the volume is low. A post that ranks #1 for a small specific query is more valuable than a post that ranks #50 for a massive generic one.
What the Numbers Actually Mean
Here’s how I’m interpreting the month one data:
Google has indexed the site. This is the first requirement. If Google doesn’t know you exist, nothing else matters. The site is indexed, the posts are showing up — that’s a foundation.
The content is being matched to real searches. The fact that I’m appearing for relevant queries at all — even at low positions — suggests the content is topically coherent. Google understands what the site is about.
Position improvement takes time and more content. The way Google’s algorithm works, sites with more content, more backlinks, and longer track records rank higher. I have none of those things in significant quantities yet. The path forward is straightforward: keep publishing, keep the quality high, and wait.
What I’m Doing About It
Based on what Search Console is showing me, here’s my plan:
Keep publishing consistently. More content means more chances to rank. But more importantly, more content means Google sees an active site that’s worth indexing regularly. Frequency matters.
Focus on specific topics rather than broad ones. The queries where I’m getting any traction at all are specific. “Honest blogging income report” rather than “make money blogging.” I’m going to lean into that specificity rather than trying to compete on broad keywords I have no chance of ranking for yet.
Build internal links as content grows. As I publish more posts, I’m going to connect them to each other. A reader who lands on one post and clicks through to two or three more is sending Google a signal that the content is valuable and worth ranking higher.
Be patient. This is the hardest one. Search Console shows me that the foundation is there. The rest is time. New sites take 6-12 months to start seeing meaningful organic traffic. I’m one month in. I need to stop looking at the numbers daily and focus on the work.
One Thing That Surprised Me
I expected month one to show me nothing. Truly zero — no impressions, no queries, no sign of life.
What I actually saw was small but real. A few hundred impressions. A handful of queries. Signs that Google had picked up the content and was starting to figure out where to put it.
That was more encouraging than I expected. Not because the numbers are good — they’re not — but because the signal is there. The engine is running. It’s just warming up.
What I’ll Report Next Month
By month two, I should have 10+ posts live and a few more weeks of indexing behind me. I’m expecting to see:
More impressions as more content gets indexed. Slightly better positions on the posts that have been live longest. Maybe — maybe — a few real organic clicks from people who don’t already know about the site.
I’ll report the actual numbers when the time comes, whatever they are. That’s the deal I made when I started this blog: real data, no matter what it says.
Next up: the real cost of starting this blog — every dollar I’ve spent in the first year, broken down honestly.