Konachan has 30-40 new user accounts created every day, from a quick review of the User listings. Probably a lot more pass through the site without creating a login - if that is a measure of interest.

To get a first page listing on google, you generally need to either be very popular, or you have to pay google for search terms. Google lists the big sites - deviantart, social media sites, sites with anime and/or wallpaper in their URL, along with the online stores such as Amazon that probably bought ad-words. Konachan and our "sister" sites are not on the first 4 pages. I checked out a few of the "popular" sites and none of them are as easy to navigate as Konachan, or has as appealing a layout. Most also carry a much wider range of content.

I don't know if SlayerDuck has looked into services like https://www.patreon.com/, but I think there would be enough regular viewers who would pay a dollar or two a month to not be confronted with "those ads" to bring in meaningful income.