In my last post (#), I talked about the SEO mistakes that kept my game database site stuck at zero Google indexing for three months.
Here's what happened next — and the exact steps that took it from 0 to 81 indexed pages in about 10 days.
The Starting Point: Absolutely Nothing
After deploying WutZone (https://wutzone.com/) — a 172-page Wuthering Waves database — Google Search Console showed beautiful, consistent data:
┌─────────┬───────────────┐
│ Date │ Pages Indexed │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│ July 12 │ 3 │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│ July 15 │ 2 │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│ July 17 │ 1 │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│ July 19 │ 0 │
└─────────┴───────────────┘
Not "growing slowly." Not "waiting to be indexed." Actively trending down. Google was crawling pages and then deliberately removing them from the index.
No manual actions. No security flags. Just a new domain being treated like a suspect.
What I Fixed (Reality Check)
Everyone tells you "just build great content and Google will find you." That's true — if you have 6-12 months and an existing backlink profile. For the rest of us, here's what actually moved the needle:
- The Stupid Stuff First
noindex on 49 out of 57 character pages. Removed it. Allow: / in robots.txt causing parser confusion. Removed it. Two lines of code, three months of zero visibility. Check this stuff before you launch.
- Structured Data Everywhere
I added JSON-LD structured data to 97% of pages — FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, Article, Organization, WebSite. Not because schema directly boosts rankings (it doesn't), but because it signals to Google "this is a real site with organized data, not an auto-generated scraper."
- External Links (Even Nofollow Ones)
Posted on Reddit, Medium, YouTube comments, Steam Community. Within 24 hours of the first Reddit post, Google's crawl rate more than doubled.
Does a nofollow Reddit link pass PageRank? No. Does it tell Google "this domain exists and people are talking about it"? Absolutely yes.
- IndexNow + Manual Submission
IndexNow API for Bing/Yandex. Manual GSC submission for the 20 highest-value pages.
The Recovery Timeline
┌────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│ Date │ Pages Indexed │ What Happened │
├────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ July 19 │ 0 │ robots.txt fix deployed │
├────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ July 20-21 │ ~10 │ First pages appear │
├────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ July 22-25 │ ~40 │ Snowball effect │
├────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ July 26-29 │ 81 (peak ~90) │ Bulk indexed │
└────────────┴───────────────┴─────────────────────────┘
Once Google decided to trust the site, it indexed pages in batches. The "sandbox" wasn't a gradual release — it was a switch.
Indexed ≠ Traffic: The Next Wall
Here's the part nobody tells you.
81 pages indexed. Zero clicks.
Getting into Google's index is like getting your foot in the door. You're in the building, but you're standing in the lobby. Nobody's searching for "wutzone.com" — they're searching for "Wuthering Waves tier list" and clicking on Game8, Prydwen, and IGN. Sites with years of backlinks and millions of clicks of authority.
I'm competing against domains that have been around since before my domain existed. Even with perfect on-page SEO, a new site simply does not outrank established gaming wikis on competitive keywords. Not in week one. Probably not in month one.
What this feels like: You fix the noindex bug. You fix robots.txt. You add structured data. You submit to GSC. You wait. Finally — pages appear in the index. You refresh GSC expecting even a handful of clicks. Nothing. You wait another week. Still nothing.
This is the second wall. The first was "Google won't even look at my site." The second is "Google sees my site but doesn't think anyone should click on it."
What I'm doing about it:
- Continuing external links from Reddit, YouTube, Steam, Discord — not for direct traffic, but to build domain authority
- Writing these dev.to posts — articles here rank well on Google and drive referral traffic
- Targeting long-tail keywords where competition is lower (specific character comparisons, niche guides)
- Not checking GSC every day. This is a months-long game now.
The honest situation: I don't know when the first organic click will come. Could be next week, could be next month. What I do know is that every external mention, every helpful comment, every piece of unique content makes that moment closer.
Indexing is not the finish line. It's the starting line.
What I Wouldn't Bother With Again
- Refreshing GSC 40 times a day. Nothing changes in 20 minutes.
- Submitting every single URL manually. Do the top 20-30, let Google discover the rest.
- Chasing backlinks from irrelevant sites. One Reddit thread > 50 link directories.
The Numbers
┌────────────────────┬────────┬────────────┐
│ Metric │ Before │ After │
├────────────────────┼────────┼────────────┤
│ Pages indexed │ 0 │ 81 │
├────────────────────┼────────┼────────────┤
│ Peak indexed │ — │ ~90 │
├────────────────────┼────────┼────────────┤
│ Clicks from Google │ 0 │ 0 (so far) │
├────────────────────┼────────┼────────────┤
│ Schema coverage │ ~65% │ 97% │
├────────────────────┼────────┼────────────┤
│ Months at zero │ 3 │ — │
├────────────────────┼────────┼────────────┤
│ Time from 0 to 81 │ — │ ~10 days │
└────────────────────┴────────┴────────────┘
The Uncomfortable Truth
Google won't tell you why it's not indexing your site. It also won't tell you when it'll start sending traffic. You fix everything, get indexed, and then... wait. Again.
The fastest way through both walls? Get other sites to mention yours. Real people on real platforms linking to your site because it's actually useful.
WutZone is at wutzone.com (https://wutzone.com/). No ads, no paywalls. Just a guy who wanted a better game wiki.
If you're stuck at 0 indexing or 0 clicks — drop a comment with your site. Happy to tell you what I'd check.
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