Reply To: Official Report: 5 Month Check in for the NEW AI Site Challenge!

Hi all!! OK, here we go…

Site metrics took an unexpected (and unhappy) pause in growth. Users 169 (basically unchanged from 168), Total Organic 144 (-19%) and GSC Clicks 93 (-27%) respectively. Total posts are at 121, up from 96. Sprint 3 is well underway as we also continue making improvements on existing articles.

Overall average position is ~31.6 (down from the previous month’s record best). We continue to rank for more keywords. Despite the downtick in some metrics, impressions were up slightly. Top 5 pages by impressions are at an average position of 25.4, down from ~20.

Of those, GSC shows a mixed picture. The best 2 pages have avg positions of 8.5 and 8.7, down slightly but pulling in more clicks overall. The 3rd best page in terms of impressions has an average position of 68.2 but ranked for 67 KWs in Feb. This was a primary pillar page from launch and has stubbornly under-performed until now; it’s suddenly showing signs of life. My hope is that this pick up in impressions and KWs is an indication of positive things to come.

The off-page efforts continued. Early in the month I published some articles on Medium. I also managed to get a few other solid external link placements as well. In my experience it takes time for new links to have an effect but I’m hoping the recent core update treats the site well.

YouTube video publishing continues but engagement is low and this is expected (I think). These are relatively short (~3 mins) headless videos. So, while I doubt YT will help in this final lap of the race, it’s a no-brainer for a site in this niche to have a channel.

We are nowhere near the front-runners in this marathon. But, despite a dip in sessions in February, it looks like we will end strong. The last week’s numbers imply March will be our best month ever. I’ll be happy if we claw back into the top 20.

As noted before, it’s really been about the testing and validation of new processes and SOPs. On that front we have already won! Reminder that I revealed the site last month…

To see the site yourself just google: motivation pay ai coach app