A Brand-New Website in Search Console: Our First 3 Weeks
Short answer: In its first three weeks, WizeTool got 4,037 impressions and 88 clicks, but most pages sat around position 60 to 80. Impressions grew quickly, clicks barely moved, and we found our own duplicate-URL mistakes. This is the honest picture of what a new site sees before rankings arrive.
We build free SEO and GEO tools, so it would be odd to hide our own numbers. Here's what Search Console showed between 9 and 28 October 2026, what surprised us, and what we're changing.
The numbers
- Impressions: 4,037 in total. Daily impressions went from 12 on 10 October to 553 on 28 October.
- Clicks: 88.
- Average position: mostly between 55 and 80 after the first few days.
- Queries shown: 322 different search terms.
- Queries where we averaged position 20 or better: about 13, and most were branded or very niche.
What surprised us
1. Impressions arrive long before clicks. Position 70 means page 7 of results. Almost nobody gets there. Google was testing us on lots of queries, but nobody was reaching us from them.
2. Some "good" numbers were misleading. 78 of our 88 clicks came from India at an average position of 9, with a 26% click-through rate. The United States gave us 1,857 impressions and 4 clicks at an average position near 75. The India numbers are mostly people who already knew us or were testing links. The US figure is the real organic picture. When you read your own report, split by country and ignore friends and testers.
3. Our biggest pool of impressions is a crowded topic. Over 2,200 impressions came from searches around checking on-page SEO. That's a competitive area with big tool vendors. We're not going to beat them for "seo optimizer" this year. We're writing for the more specific questions inside that topic instead.
4. The same page was showing up under several addresses. Our homepage appeared as https://wizetool.com/, https://www.wizetool.com/ and http://wizetool.com/. Pages like /about and /about/ both appeared, and a subdomain was indexed too. We write guides about duplicate URLs and canonical tags, and we still did this to ourselves. Fixing it with 301s is first on our list. The method is in how to set up 301 redirects.
5. Odd, very specific queries found us. A few long, conversational questions about sitemaps and answer-first formatting reached us at positions 2 to 9, with only a couple of impressions each. They look like the kind of questions AI search tools generate. Clear question-style headings seem to help.
What we got wrong
- Publishing guides before settling the URL structure.
- Letting tiny daily pages and utility pages get indexed with little text on them.
- Not setting up a Domain property in Search Console on day one, so we missed the combined view of www, http and subdomains.
What we're doing next
- Redirecting every duplicate host and slash variant to one canonical address.
- Rewriting titles and descriptions on pages that already get impressions.
- Adding real examples and screenshots to the main tool pages.
- Publishing about two new guides a week, each linked into the older ones.
- Looking for genuine mentions: answering questions in communities, publishing a free checklist on GitHub.
What you can take from this
- Give a new site 3 to 6 months before judging rankings. Judge progress by impressions, indexed pages and queries first.
- Filter Search Console by the countries you want to reach.
- Check your own duplicate versions on day one. Our walkthrough is in how to read the Search Console pages report.
- Start with specific, lower-competition questions. Then use the on-page SEO checklist to make sure each page is solid.
- Learn the basics of the tool itself in how to use Search Console for SEO.
Quick checklist for your own first month
- Domain property verified in Search Console
- One canonical host and protocol, redirects tested
- Sitemap submitted
- No thin pages indexable
- Weekly check: queries, positions, indexing issues
- Don't change titles every day. Wait 2 to 3 weeks between edits.
FAQ
How long until a new site ranks? It varies by topic and competition. Expect weeks for first impressions and months for stable positions.
Why do I have impressions but no clicks? Your pages appear deep in the results. Improve relevance, internal links, and earn a few real links, and positions rise.
Are my own clicks counted? Yes, if you reach the site through Google search. Avoid testing that way.
Related guides
- How to use Search Console for SEO
- How to read the Search Console pages report
- On-page SEO checklist
- Try the free on-page SEO checker