I've been studying the various signals that search engines and large language models are reading in order to figure out how a business or website should be shown to people and I thought I'd show you this timeline:
Purchase
On the 14th of October 2023, purchased the domain name brisbanecitycelebrants.au from Drop.com.au in an expiring domains auction. The name was what I wanted, the domain had a domain authority of one and zero backlinks.
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/purchased_domain_name_gN8SADS72?tr=w-1200)
Deployed to Github and added to Google Search Console
Deployed to Github and added to Google Search Console on the 8th of February, 2025
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/Screenshot_of_Git_commit_qYQ0hN-qR?tr=w-1200)
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/gsc-screenshot_WS9qPlhtn?tr=w-1200)
The actual website
A screenshot of the website that was deployed. It remains unchanged and you can view it at brisbanecitycelebrants.au
The website was built on Astro, on the Astrowind template.
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/deployed_website_screenshot_wzTmlWCLq?tr=w-1200)
And how Google Page Speed and Google Rich Results see the website:
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/pagespeed_of_website_zbcnQNHnY?tr=w-1200)
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/rich_results_screenshot_QhxJ-rTDz?tr=w-1200)
Eight weeks later
I just got my weekly report in from Moz and the website is doing beautifully with barely any backlinks, and those I have backlinked from are not that strong.
The website only has backlinks from:
- marriedbyjosh.com with a DA of 39
- marriageoffice.net.au with a DA of 4
- marriageoffice.sydney with a DA of 3
I've got plans for more, but you don't want to roll everything out at once.
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/screensahot_1__AZZ9eoHVQ?tr=w-1200)
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/screenshots_of_keywords_wAX7JwpKE?tr=w-1200)
Already in search results
The site is already being displayed in Google results, receiving visitors, the LLMs are crawling it, and Google even features its content in some featured snippets.
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/chat-gpt-onbrisbane_city_celebrants_fF1bKormT?tr=w-1200)
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/featured_snippets_mg7l-gnEO?tr=w-1200)
The website isn't where I want it to be, but for two months work that's a fascinatingly good result for a new website and zero ad spend.
By February 2026 I'm expecting it to be above the private operators it's in competition with, but I don't know if I have the skills to outrank a .gov.au website in the Queensland BDM?
Domain authority of a new website
Most websites in competitive spaces don't start commanding space on the front page of Google until they have a domain authority of 20 (out of 100). What is the DA of brisbanecitycelebrants.au today? 4. Let's see how it rises in a year!
](https://ik.imagekit.io/withers/domain_authority_Ixj1V_pYx?tr=w-1200)