From 37 to 28,000 clicks a month: what Cruciverba Lab's search data taught me
Cruciverba Lab went from 37 clicks from Google in May to 28,099 in the last thirty days, with no ads and no bought links. 94% of those clicks come from a single page, the homepage, on searches like «cruciverba online». The ten thousand solution pages produce almost half the impressions, but only 4% of the visits.
I built Cruciverba Lab on my own: an Italian daily crossword that drops every night at midnight, alongside other word games. I ran no campaigns. Every number below comes from Google Search Console, including the ones that didn't go the way I expected.
How long does a new site take to get traffic from Google?
Longer than you'd hope. For two months the site collected next to nothing, even though a new edition went out every night.
| Month (2026) | Clicks | Impressions | Average position |
|---|---|---|---|
| May | 37 | 852 | 13.5 |
| June | 73 | 3,547 | 12.9 |
| July | 573 | 45,498 | 8.1 |
| August | 13,520 | 273,205 | 7.0 |
| September | 26,779 | 416,844 | 6.5 |
I can't say for sure what set August off. I added two games on the 12th and 14th, but daily clicks were already climbing from the end of July, from a few dozen to over two hundred, so I don't count them as the cause. Google doesn't explain its updates, and I won't invent an explanation to make the story tidy.
One thing is certain: had I shut the site down in June, with 73 clicks that month, I'd never have seen August.
Is it better to have many pages or one strong page?
This is where the data proved me wrong. In the Cruciverba Lab case study I wrote that the solutions archive was the site's SEO engine: every clue becomes a page with the answer explained, and there are 10,137 of them in the sitemap. The last thirty days say otherwise.
| Pages | How many | Impressions | Clicks | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage | 1 | 239,814 | 26,313 | 11% |
| Solutions | 10,137 | 208,954 | 1,174 | 0.56% |
| Past games archive | 825 | 7,410 | 89 | 1.2% |
One page brings twenty-two times the clicks of ten thousand. The clearest example is the solution for «breve messaggio pubblicitario» (a short ad, as a crossword clue): 18,721 impressions and 6 clicks in a month. My guess, and it stays a guess, is that someone looking up a clue reads the answer right on the results page and has no reason to click through.
The solution pages aren't useless: they keep the site present on thousands of searches, and they do bring some clicks. But had I treated them as the main strategy, I'd have been aiming at the wrong target.
Which searches actually bring the visits?
A few broad ones. Three queries alone account for almost half the clicks:
| Search | Clicks (30 days) | Average position | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|
| cruciverba online | 7,906 | 5.1 | 10.8% |
| cruciverba | 3,693 | 6.4 | 8.0% |
| cruciverba online gratis | 2,392 | 3.9 | 15.7% |
The homepage title reads «Cruciverba del giorno, gioca gratis online» (today's crossword, play free online). The words people type, cruciverba, online, gratis, are the words they read in the result. I can't measure how much the title weighs on its own, but it's the first line a searcher sees, and a line that repeats their question gets clicked more readily.
Why do phone users click less than desktop users?
This is the number I still can't explain. In the last thirty days the site had 294,719 impressions on mobile and 143,407 on desktop: phones see it twice as often. Yet desktop CTR is 11.4% and mobile CTR 3.6%. It's what I'm looking into next, and when I have a verified answer I'll add it here.
What does this mean for a business website?
A local business site isn't a games site, but the logic holds. One page that answers your customers' main search well is worth more than a hundred pages written to fill up Google. The title should carry the words your customer actually types, not the ones you use internally. And the first months will be small even when the work is done right.
It's the same approach I take with the websites I build for businesses and professionals, and the full story of the project is in the Cruciverba Lab case study. The site I'm talking about is cruciverba-lab.it: tomorrow's crossword goes live tonight at midnight.
Frequent questions
- How long does it take a new website to get traffic from Google?
- For Cruciverba Lab, the first two months brought fewer than a hundred clicks each, 37 in May and 73 in June. Real growth came between July and August, when clicks climbed to 13,520. With a new site, think in months rather than weeks, and keep publishing while the numbers are still small.
- Is it worth creating lots of pages to rank for more searches?
- Not necessarily. On Cruciverba Lab, more than ten thousand solution pages produce 46% of impressions but only 4% of clicks, while the homepage alone brings 94% of visits. Many thin pages inflate Search Console numbers; the visits come from the page that best answers the main search people actually make.
- What is CTR in Google Search Console and why does it matter?
- CTR is the share of people who click a result after seeing it on Google. Cruciverba Lab's homepage has an 11% CTR, its solution pages 0.56%. A high CTR means the title and description promise exactly what the searcher wants, so impressions turn into visits instead of scrolling past.
- Can a site grow on Google without ads or bought links?
- Yes. Cruciverba Lab reached 28,099 clicks in thirty days with no campaigns, no ads and no bought links. In its case there was a new edition every night and one clear main page for a precise search, «cruciverba online» (crossword online). Expect patience and a few months of small numbers before the curve moves.
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