LinkExperto
Newbie
- Dec 24, 2025
- 31
- 23
Impressive growth trajectory! Programmatic SEO with AI is definitely the future. Good luck scaling the sub-niches!
[JOURNEY] Growing an Authority Website Through Programmatic SEO in the Era of AI
- Thread starter hommixo
- Start date
Madflavour
Registered Member
- Jul 27, 2024
- 51
- 53
cool journey! best of luck! is that like a news site, a informative site or a blog or such?
hommixo
Newbie
- Feb 4, 2022
- 37
- 21
No, I’ve never used pop ads or paid traffic to “send signals” to Google. I’m using a fresh domain. Personally I prefer starting clean and letting things grow naturally.
Appreciate it
Yeah, programmatic + utility-style pages seem to work really well if the intent is right. Still early, but scaling carefully.
It’s not a news site or a classic blog.
The closest description would be a semi-tool / utility site where people actually come back to use it, rather than just read one article and leave.
- Nov 25, 2025
- 100
- 20
that's interesting! solid results, keep growing
hommixo
Newbie
- Feb 4, 2022
- 37
- 21
Weekly Update #4
Another strong week and growth is still trending up.
Over the last 28 days, the site is now at around 6.5k pageviews with 2.4k active users. Pages per user is holding around 2.7, and bounce rate is about 61%, which I’m fine with at this stage given the site is still young and heavily programmatic.
What really stands out is the traffic source mix. Almost 90% of traffic is direct, with organic still a smaller piece of the pie. That’s honestly the most encouraging part for me. People are actively coming back and using the site, which is exactly what I’m aiming for if you want something that’s more “AI-proof” and not purely dependent on Google.
Organic search is slowly picking up as more pages get indexed, but I’m not rushing that part. The foundation is usage first, rankings second.
Monetization:
Even though the “safe” play is to wait until 10k pageviews to apply to Mediavine Journey, I decided to apply now anyway to capitalize on the momentum and see how they view the traffic quality and growth curve. Worst case, I reapply later with more volume.
Next steps are the same as before:
Still early days, but the trajectory feels solid so far. More updates soon.
Another strong week and growth is still trending up.
Over the last 28 days, the site is now at around 6.5k pageviews with 2.4k active users. Pages per user is holding around 2.7, and bounce rate is about 61%, which I’m fine with at this stage given the site is still young and heavily programmatic.
What really stands out is the traffic source mix. Almost 90% of traffic is direct, with organic still a smaller piece of the pie. That’s honestly the most encouraging part for me. People are actively coming back and using the site, which is exactly what I’m aiming for if you want something that’s more “AI-proof” and not purely dependent on Google.
Organic search is slowly picking up as more pages get indexed, but I’m not rushing that part. The foundation is usage first, rankings second.
Monetization:
Even though the “safe” play is to wait until 10k pageviews to apply to Mediavine Journey, I decided to apply now anyway to capitalize on the momentum and see how they view the traffic quality and growth curve. Worst case, I reapply later with more volume.
Next steps are the same as before:
- Keep expanding programmatic pages
- Cover more of the niche depth
- Avoid over-optimizing too early
Still early days, but the trajectory feels solid so far. More updates soon.
hommixo
Newbie
- Feb 4, 2022
- 37
- 21
Thank you for the kind words!
hommixo
Newbie
- Feb 4, 2022
- 37
- 21
Weekly Update #5
Quick update as things are still moving.
Traffic continues to climb. Over the last 28 days, the site is now at around 8.3k pageviews with 3.2k active users. Engagement is holding steady at roughly 2.6 pages per user, and bounce rate is sitting around 61–62%, which I’m comfortable with given the nature of the site and how people use it.
The overall trend is still clearly up, with higher daily highs compared to the previous period. Direct traffic remains the dominant source, which reinforces that people are actually coming back and using the site rather than just landing once from search.
I’m still waiting to hear back from Mediavine Journey regarding monetization.
At this point, it’s mostly a waiting game on the monetization side, but growth-wise things are heading in the right direction. I’ll update again next week or once I hear back from Mediavine.
Quick update as things are still moving.
Traffic continues to climb. Over the last 28 days, the site is now at around 8.3k pageviews with 3.2k active users. Engagement is holding steady at roughly 2.6 pages per user, and bounce rate is sitting around 61–62%, which I’m comfortable with given the nature of the site and how people use it.
The overall trend is still clearly up, with higher daily highs compared to the previous period. Direct traffic remains the dominant source, which reinforces that people are actually coming back and using the site rather than just landing once from search.
I’m still waiting to hear back from Mediavine Journey regarding monetization.
At this point, it’s mostly a waiting game on the monetization side, but growth-wise things are heading in the right direction. I’ll update again next week or once I hear back from Mediavine.
hommixo
Newbie
- Feb 4, 2022
- 37
- 21
Weekly Update #5
Things moved faster than expected this week.
The site crossed 10k pageviews over the last 30 days, which honestly happened a lot quicker than I anticipated. Active users are close to 4k, and usage patterns are staying pretty consistent with how the site is meant to be used.
Growth is still trending up overall, even with normal daily fluctuations. Direct traffic continues to be a big chunk of the total, which is still the most encouraging signal for me long-term.
I’m now expecting to hear back from Mediavine Journey very soon, so fingers crossed on the monetization side. Either way, I’m not slowing down while waiting.
Next step is adding a set of larger authority-style pages. These are broader, more foundational pages within the niche, and if they perform the way I expect, they should significantly increase overall traffic over time (potentially close to doubling it).
Things moved faster than expected this week.
The site crossed 10k pageviews over the last 30 days, which honestly happened a lot quicker than I anticipated. Active users are close to 4k, and usage patterns are staying pretty consistent with how the site is meant to be used.
Growth is still trending up overall, even with normal daily fluctuations. Direct traffic continues to be a big chunk of the total, which is still the most encouraging signal for me long-term.
I’m now expecting to hear back from Mediavine Journey very soon, so fingers crossed on the monetization side. Either way, I’m not slowing down while waiting.
Next step is adding a set of larger authority-style pages. These are broader, more foundational pages within the niche, and if they perform the way I expect, they should significantly increase overall traffic over time (potentially close to doubling it).
- Sep 9, 2023
- 3,003
- 1,788
Solid start! Expanding into sub-niches should boost traffic and revenue. Excited to see your growth. 
hommixo
Newbie
- Feb 4, 2022
- 37
- 21
Thank you!Solid start! Expanding into sub-niches should boost traffic and revenue. Excited to see your growth.
- Jun 16, 2022
- 2,827
- 852
All the best for the journey.
Ghoztseo
Power Member
- Nov 24, 2012
- 764
- 388
Excited to see your results mate. That was way very fast, However, you kept the momentum nicely. and, keep doubling down while you're on the review. that way you will receive more traffics to the page, which has higher chances of getting approved faster by mediavine.
hommixo
Newbie
- Feb 4, 2022
- 37
- 21
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Yes, that's what I'm planning to do! Good luck on your journey as well, I can't wait to see how you progress.
Interesting that you've got that much depth and still have more to go.
Is it like a tool site or informational?
Also are you using any framework like WP or is it all custom coded?
I've been working on a 100% custom coded site using an object oriented json framework that has been surprisingly performant despite being on slow shared hosting.
Is it like a tool site or informational?
Also are you using any framework like WP or is it all custom coded?
I've been working on a 100% custom coded site using an object oriented json framework that has been surprisingly performant despite being on slow shared hosting.
hommixo
Newbie
- Feb 4, 2022
- 37
- 21
Nothing fancy. I just wrote a normal post in a relevant subreddit explaining what the site does and why it might be useful. No spammy promo stuff, just contextual and aligned with the community.Interesting that you've got that much depth and still have more to go.
It’s more of a tool/utility site than informational.
And it’s fully custom coded. WP feels too limiting for what I’m building. For this type of programmatic + scalable model, I personally think custom setups are the future.
Absolutely. Are you using PHP to build it? Or are you using a different programming language?
For my big project I'm using a lot of OOP in PHP because it can be quite scalable, but a lot of other projects that I've been doing have used Python on the backend.
In the past, when I did programmatic SEO & page building using WP, I noticed that once you get to the point of having 500+ pages, the entire site becomes slow and sluggish, and even the cpanel starts becoming slow lol.
Do you plan on just running ads on this site as well? Or will you also be selling software/services with it, too?
alwaysgrinding
Power Member
- May 24, 2025
- 733
- 320
Solid plan. Good luck. I am running similiar set up, but on quite few more sites.
I use mediavine journey on some sites. But it takes ages to get sites in
I use mediavine journey on some sites. But it takes ages to get sites in
hommixo
Newbie
- Feb 4, 2022
- 37
- 21
I’m not using PHP. The site is a React (JavaScript) app, with data coming from a Postgres database.
For now, I’m only planning to run ads and see how it performs. Selling software or services doesn’t really make sense for this type of utility site.
Thank you! Yeah I’ve heard it can take a while. That’s what I’m expecting too.
Just focusing on growing traffic in the meantime so even if it takes ages, the numbers keep moving up anyway.
