SmartConvert Weekly Update: 45 Users, 4 Search Clicks, and a Rejected AdSense Application

I'm building SmartConvert, a small online tools website, as a solo developer.

Another week of building SmartConvert is over.

I didn't launch anything particularly big this week.

Instead, something happened that I was already expecting:

My Google AdSense application was rejected.

The reason?

Low-value content.

Honestly, I wasn't particularly surprised.

SmartConvert still has relatively little content, the number of tools is still small, and Google hasn't started sending much search traffic to the site yet.

So given the current state of the website, the rejection was more or less what I expected.

But it also made something clearer to me:

Building a website is easy. Building one that people actually use is much harder.

Let's Look at the Numbers

Here are the numbers from the last seven days.

Google Analytics 4
Total users: 45
Active users: 45

And from Google Search Console:

Total impressions: 340
Total clicks: 4
Average position: 71
Average CTR: 1.2%

Looking at those numbers on their own, they don't look great.

Only 45 users in seven days.

Only 340 search impressions.

And just 4 clicks from Google Search.

An average position of 71 also means that most of the keywords are still appearing fairly far down in the search results.

But strangely enough, I think these numbers are more useful than having no data at all.

At least people are starting to find the site through search.

At least a few people have clicked through.

That means SmartConvert isn't completely invisible.

It's just very early.

I Added Three PDF Tools Last Week

The main thing I worked on last week was adding more PDF tools.

This time, I added:

PDF to Word
PDF compression
PDF merging

Along with the tools that were already available, SmartConvert is gradually becoming a more complete online tools website rather than just a small collection of utilities.

But this week, I'm not planning to add a bunch of new features.

Instead, I want to wait.

The reason is simple:

The new PDF pages haven't been indexed by Google yet.

If I keep adding tools as fast as possible, it's easy to fall into a pattern where I'm constantly busy without actually learning anything.

You can build several features every day.

The progress looks impressive.

But the real questions are:

Do people actually need these tools?

Will Google index them?

Once they're indexed, will they get any impressions?

Will anyone actually click through from search?

I don't have the answers yet.

So I'm going to pause for a while.

Let the data catch up with the work.

Being Rejected by AdSense Actually Made Me Slow Down

Before building a website myself, it was easy to look at other sites and imagine a simple formula:

Launch a website.

Put some ads on it.

Get traffic.

Make money.

After actually doing it myself, I've realized how many steps are missing in between.

You need content.

People need to search for it.

Google needs to index it.

People need to find it.

They need to actually click.

They need to actually use the product.

Only then does advertising revenue become something worth talking about.

So for me, the AdSense rejection isn't really bad news.

It's simply telling me something very directly:

SmartConvert isn't ready to make money yet.

That's fine.

I don't need to monetize it yet.

For now, I need to make the product better.

The Most Important Thing Right Now Isn't More Development

If I approached SmartConvert the way I used to approach software projects, I'd probably just keep building.

Not enough features?

Add more.

Not enough PDF tools?

Add more.

Not enough AI tools?

Add more.

The page doesn't look complete?

Keep improving it.

At the end of the day, I could have dozens of Git commits and feel like I had been extremely productive.

But users don't show up just because you pushed 20 commits today.

That's probably one of the biggest differences between software development and product development.

When you're writing code, the question is often:

How do I build this?

When you're building a product, you also have to ask:

Does anyone actually need what I'm building?

That question is much harder to answer.

What Am I Watching Next?

For the next few weeks, I'm not planning to add a large number of new features.

Instead, I want to watch three things.

1. Google Search Console

I want to see when the new PDF pages start appearing in Google's index and search data.

1. Search Impressions

Once they're indexed, will they start appearing for more search queries?

Will impressions actually increase?

1. Real Users

Will people discover SmartConvert through Google and actually use the tools?

These numbers might not improve quickly.

I might even discover that these PDF tools barely get any search traffic at all.

But at least I'll have an answer.

And that's useful information.

SmartConvert Is Still Very Far From Success

Right now:

45 users in the last 7 days.

4 clicks from Google Search.

$0 in revenue.

AdSense rejected.

These aren't impressive numbers.

But this is exactly the stage I want to document.

Most stories people see begin after a product has already started working.

Very few people carefully document how difficult things looked at the beginning.

I'm right in that stage now.

So I'm going to write the numbers down.

Then I'll come back and look at them again after some time has passed.

Maybe a few months from now, these numbers will look much better.

Maybe they'll still look terrible.

Maybe the product won't work out at all.

That's okay.

At least I'll know:

I actually gave it a shot.

Next week, I'll keep watching the data.