Forem: Eduard Albu

Weeks 7-8: Browser-Based AI, Holiday Dips, and Why Third-Party SEO Tools Are Nearly Useless

Eduard Albu — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 10:35:21 +0000

This is a double update because Christmas and New Year got in the way of shipping.

But even with holiday slowdowns, these two weeks brought two major tool launches, confirmed something I suspected about SEO tools, and revealed just how international QuickTools.one's audience has become.

Here is everything that happened between December 19 and January 1.

The Numbers That Tell a Story

Let me start with the traffic because it shows something interesting about seasonality.

Metric	Value	Change from Week 6
Visitors	1,080	-25%
Visits	1,310	-21%
Page Views	4,790	-20%
Bounce Rate	15%	-3 points
Average Visit Duration	4 min 12 sec	+4%

A 25% traffic drop during Christmas week. This is normal.

People are not searching for PDF tools while opening presents. The interesting part is what happened after the dip.

Traffic recovered to near-normal levels by December 30. Bounce rate improved. Session duration increased. These are signs of a healthy product.

The drop was seasonal, not structural.

Where the Traffic Comes From

The traffic source breakdown continues to surprise me.

Source	Visitors	Share
ChatGPT	810	75%
Google	135	13%
Bing	54	5%
Egypt (direct)	162	15%
Saudi Arabia (direct)	119	11%

ChatGPT still dominates. It sent 75% of referral traffic across both weeks.

But the geographic breakdown is what caught my attention this time.

26% of my traffic came from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Combined.

I built QuickTools.one in English, for an international audience, without targeting any specific region. And somehow, a quarter of my users are coming from two countries in the Middle East.

I do not know why yet. Maybe these markets are underserved for free PDF tools. Maybe privacy concerns are higher there. Maybe ChatGPT is recommending QuickTools more aggressively in those regions.

Whatever the reason, this is worth watching. If this trend continues, I might need to consider localization or Arabic language support.

Two New Tools Launched

Even during the holidays, I shipped two tools. Both required weeks of research and testing, but they are finally live.

Remove Background (Browser-Based AI)

Remove image backgrounds using AI that runs entirely in your browser. No uploads, no API calls, no privacy concerns.

Try it: https://quicktools.one/remove-background

This tool uses ONNX Runtime Web and a quantized version of the RMBG-1.4 model to run background removal locally. The entire ML model loads in the browser, processes images on your device, and never sends data anywhere.

Technically, this was the hardest tool I have built so far. The model is 176MB, which required careful optimization to avoid killing mobile browsers. I added progressive loading, WebAssembly acceleration, and fallback paths for unsupported devices.

The keyword research justified the effort:

"remove background from image" gets 201,000 monthly searches with difficulty 61
"remove image background" gets 135,000 searches with difficulty 58
"background remover" gets 110,000 searches with difficulty 65

These are competitive keywords. But the privacy-first positioning gives QuickTools.one a real differentiator. Most background removal tools upload your images to servers. Ours does not.

For photographers working with client photos, designers handling confidential mockups, or anyone who just values privacy, this matters.

Convert to WebP

Convert images to WebP format for faster loading and smaller file sizes. Supports batch conversion and quality control.

Try it: https://quicktools.one/convert-to-webp

This one targets web developers optimizing site performance. WebP images are 25-35% smaller than JPEGs at the same quality level, which directly impacts Core Web Vitals scores.

Keyword research revealed a golden opportunity here:

"webp convert png" gets 33,100 searches with difficulty 17
"png to webp" gets 27,100 searches with difficulty 63

Same search intent. Massive difference in difficulty.

I optimized the page around "webp convert png" and related variations like "convert image to webp" (22,200 volume, difficulty 18). Much easier to rank than targeting "png to webp" directly.

With these two tools, QuickTools.one now has 17 live tools.

The Third-Party SEO Tool Problem

This week I discovered something that completely changed how I evaluate backlinks.

I was checking Ubersuggest to see how many referring domains QuickTools.one had. It showed 6 backlinks.

Then I checked Google Search Console. It showed 180.

That is a 30x difference between what third-party tools show and reality.

And it gets worse. Earlier in the project, Ubersuggest showed 4 backlinks when GSC showed 56. The gap has been consistent throughout.

Third-party SEO tools like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs (free version), and Semrush crawl the web with their own bots. They have limitations:

Their crawlers are slower and less comprehensive than Google's
They prioritize established, high-authority domains
New domains with few backlinks get deprioritized
They simply miss most links to new sites

For a domain less than 8 weeks old, these tools are nearly useless. They will show you maybe 5-10% of your actual backlinks.

Google Search Console shows you what Google actually sees. It is the only reliable source of truth for new domains.

The lesson: do not get discouraged by low backlink counts in third-party tools. Check GSC. The reality is probably much better.

Google Search Console Progress

Speaking of GSC, here are some meaningful numbers:

Average CTR: 24.7%
Average Position: 34.5
Backlinks: 180 (up from 56 in Week 5, +220% growth)

The 24.7% CTR seems impossibly high. Industry average is 2-3%.

But here is what is happening: branded searches.

When someone searches "quicktools.one" directly and I rank position 1, the CTR approaches 100%. These branded queries inflate the overall average.

The average position of 34.5 tells the real story. For non-branded keywords, I am ranking somewhere on page 3-4. That is expected for a domain this young with this domain authority.

The "free plugins equal free backlinks" strategy continues working. Browser extensions and npm packages generate automatic links from monitoring sites.

Supporting Content Published

I published two blog articles during this period:

"How to Remove Background from Image: 6 Free Methods" targets comparison searches like "how to remove image background in photoshop" and "remove image background gimp". The format covers QuickTools, Photoshop, GIMP, Canva, PowerPoint, and Google Slides.

"How to Convert PNG to WebP: 5 Free Methods" targets platform-specific searches like "convert png to webp mac" (difficulty 6) and "convert png to webp photoshop" (difficulty 6). The article covers methods for QuickTools, Mac Terminal, Windows, Photoshop, and Canva.

The "X Free Methods" format works consistently. It captures users who are looking for alternatives, positions QuickTools as one option among many (which builds trust), and targets long-tail keywords that the main tool page cannot rank for.

Directory Submissions This Period

I continued the directory submission grind:

SideProjectors (submitted as showcase)
StartupRanking
StartupTile
PitchWall.co (from Week 6, now live)

The goal is consistent progress. A few submissions per week, tracked in a spreadsheet. None of these will move the needle individually. But over months, they compound into meaningful domain authority.

Week 7-8 Summary

Metric	Value
Tools live	17
New tools	2 (Remove Background, Convert to WebP)
Blog articles	2 new
Visitors (2 weeks)	1,080
Top traffic source	ChatGPT (75%)
Backlinks (GSC)	180 (+220% from Week 5)
GSC average CTR	24.7%
GSC average position	34.5
Tool usage	PDF 91%, Image 9%
Total tool conversions	Around 2,000 operations

Key Lessons from Weeks 7-8

1. Browser-based AI is a real differentiator

Running ML models in the browser is not just a technical curiosity. It solves a genuine privacy concern. For sensitive photos or confidential documents, users appreciate knowing their files never leave their device.

2. Third-party SEO tools fail on new domains

Do not trust Ubersuggest, Ahrefs free, or similar tools for backlink counts. They miss 90%+ of your actual links. Use Google Search Console for truth.

3. Holiday dips are normal

A 25% traffic drop during Christmas week is expected. Do not panic. The underlying trends matter more than weekly fluctuations.

4. International audiences are real

26% of my traffic comes from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. These markets might be underserved. Worth considering for future keyword targeting and possibly localization.

5. Golden keywords hide in plain sight

"Webp convert png" and "png to webp" have nearly identical intent. One has difficulty 17, the other difficulty 63. Always check variations.

6. PDF tools are the core product

91% of tool usage is PDF-related. Users come for PDF work. Image tools are secondary. This should inform future development priorities.

What is Next

Week 9 will focus on:

Continuing directory submissions from the 100-site hit list
Monitoring how the new AI tool performs in search
Potentially adding more video tools (GIF to video as reverse of video to GIF)
Tracking the international traffic trend to see if it grows

Try All 17 Tools

All tools are free and process files locally in your browser:

PDF Tools

Image Tools

Video Tools

Video to GIF

Document Tools

Markdown to PDF

Developer Tools

Favicon Generator

Follow the Journey

Daily updates on X: https://x.com/eduardalbu

Weekly articles on Medium and Dev.to.

Tags: #BuildInPublic #IndieHackers #SEO #MicroSaaS #NextJS #SoloFounder #AI #BrowserML

Week 6: Golden Keywords, Honest Limitations, and Why I’m Building a Directory Hit List

Eduard Albu — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 08:53:22 +0000

Week 6 taught me something I wish I knew from day one: keyword difficulty matters more than search volume.

I found keywords with 135,000 monthly searches and a difficulty score of 3. Three. Out of 100.

This week I shipped two new tools, discovered "golden keywords" hiding in plain sight, and learned that being honest about your product's limitations can actually be a competitive advantage.

Here is everything that happened between December 12 and 18, 2025.

The Golden Keyword Discovery

Let me start with the insight that shaped this entire week.

When building the Favicon Generator, I did my usual keyword research. The obvious target was "favicon generator" with 12,100 monthly searches. Solid volume. But then I checked the difficulty score: 65 out of 100.

That means ranking on page 1 would require competing against domains with thousands of backlinks. As a new site with around 20 referring domains, that is not a winnable fight. Not yet.

So I dug deeper.

I started searching for keyword variations, looking for phrases that meant the same thing but had lower competition.

Then I found them.

Keyword	Volume	Difficulty
"generate a favicon"	135,000	3
"how do i create a favicon"	74,000	17
"create a favicon for free"	60,500	22

These are what I am calling "golden keywords": high search volume, low difficulty, same user intent.

The users searching "generate a favicon" want exactly what users searching "favicon generator" want. But the second phrase is 20 times easier to rank for.

This changes everything.

I have been chasing head keywords with massive competition when I should have been hunting for these golden variations from the start.

Two New Tools Shipped This Week

Week 6 added two more tools to QuickTools.one, bringing the total to 15.

Favicon Generator

Create favicons from images or text, with automatic resizing to all the formats modern browsers need (16x16, 32x32, 180x180, etc.).

Try it: https://quicktools.one/favicon-maker

This one targets the golden keywords mentioned above. I optimized the title and description around "generate a favicon" and "create a favicon for free" instead of just "favicon generator."

The page also includes a detailed guide section explaining how to add favicons to websites, targeting the informational query "how to add favicon to website" (9,900 volume, difficulty 18).

PDF Unlock

Remove passwords from PDFs you own, processing everything locally in the browser.

Try it: https://quicktools.one/pdf-unlock

This tool required a different approach because of a technical limitation: you cannot crack unknown PDF passwords without server-side processing. That would require uploading files and running brute-force attacks, which defeats the entire privacy-first positioning of QuickTools.one.

So instead of hiding this limitation, I made it a feature.

The tool only works if you already know the password. You enter the password, it removes the restrictions, and you get an unlocked PDF. All locally. No uploads. No privacy concerns.

The page copy is honest about what it can and cannot do. And I positioned the limitation as a privacy benefit: "We cannot crack passwords because we never see your files."

This turned out to be a competitive advantage. Most PDF unlock tools either require uploads (privacy risk) or charge money for server-side cracking (expensive). QuickTools.one offers a middle ground: free, private, instant unlocking if you have the password.

The keyword "unlock pdf" gets 33,100 monthly searches with difficulty 38. Secondary keywords like "remove password from pdf" (18,100 volume, difficulty 22) and "unlock pdf without password" (12,100 volume, difficulty 27) provide additional traffic opportunities.

Traffic Growth Continues

Week 6 brought 864 visitors, up 28% from Week 5.

But the most interesting part is the traffic source breakdown.

Source	Visitors	Share
ChatGPT	243	75%
Google	49	15%
Bing	10	3%
Other	7%	Various

ChatGPT now sends 75% of my referral traffic. Up from 71% in Week 4.

I built this entire project around Google SEO. I optimized titles, wrote blog posts, submitted sitemaps, chased backlinks. And an AI chatbot casually sends 5x more visitors than the world's largest search engine.

New referrers this week include huntscreens.com (a directory site), WeChat (somehow QuickTools reached Chinese users), and various social platforms.

The ChatGPT traffic validates something: building genuinely useful tools with good UX matters. AI recommendation systems seem to pick up on quality signals.

Content Strategy: Supporting Tools with Blog Articles

Each tool page targets the main keyword. But there are dozens of long-tail variations that a single page cannot capture.

This week I published two blog articles specifically to support the new tools:

"How to Make a Favicon for Your Website" targets:

"how to make a favicon for a website"
"favicon ideas"
"create favicon photoshop"
"create favicon in canva"

These are informational queries. People searching them want guides, not just tools. The article provides value, then naturally links to the Favicon Generator.

"How to Remove Password from PDF" targets:

"remove pdf password in adobe reader" (difficulty 4)
"unlock pdf adobe acrobat" (difficulty 5)
"remove pdf password on mac" (difficulty 5)

I also addressed "unlock pdf without password" honestly, explaining why that is not possible without server-side cracking and why our approach protects their privacy instead.

Each article includes comparison tables (targeting featured snippets), step-by-step instructions, and multiple JSON-LD schemas for rich results.

The 100 Directory Hit List

Last week I mentioned that backlinks are the primary bottleneck for new domains.

This week I got systematic about it.

I created a checklist of 100 directories to submit QuickTools.one to. Not random directories. Curated ones organized by tier:

High authority product directories (Product Hunt, AlternativeTo)
Indie hacker communities (BetaList, Launching Next)
Tool-specific directories (ToolPilot, Futurepedia)
Developer platforms (Dev.to, HackerNews)
Design communities (Dribbble Resources, Designer News)
Browser extension directories (already listed)
Privacy-focused directories (PrivacyTools, Prism Break)

I filtered out directories that would not accept QuickTools:

B2B-only platforms like G2
Desktop software directories like Softpedia and CNET Download (they require downloadable installers, not web apps)

First submission this week: PitchWall.co. Currently in review.

The goal is consistent outreach. A few submissions per week, tracked in a spreadsheet, compounding over months.

Other Updates

Browser Extension v2 Released

Updated the Chrome, Firefox, and Edge extensions to include all 15 tools. Added ?ref=extension tracking to measure how much traffic comes from extension users.

PWA Analytics

Added ?ref=pwa tracking for users who installed QuickTools as a Progressive Web App. Now I can see returning PWA users separately from browser visitors.

FAQ Expansion

Expanded the FAQ section from 12 to 28 questions. Each FAQ targets a specific long-tail keyword. Organized by category (PDF, image, video) with helper functions for filtering.

Landing Page Rewrite

Rewrote the SEO content section on the homepage. Removed corporate-speak ("comprehensive suite", "seamless experience"). Made it conversational. Added internal links to 10 tools instead of 4.

Week 6 Summary

Metric	Value
Tools live	15
New tools	2 (Favicon Generator, PDF Unlock)
Blog articles	2 new
Visitors (week)	864 (+28%)
Top traffic source	ChatGPT (75%)
Directory submissions	1 (PitchWall)
Directory hit list	100 curated

Key Lessons

1. Hunt for golden keywords

Same search volume can have wildly different difficulty scores. "Favicon generator" at difficulty 65 vs "generate a favicon" at difficulty 17. Always check variations.

2. Turn limitations into differentiators

Cannot crack PDF passwords without a server? Position it as a privacy feature. Being honest about what you cannot do builds trust.

3. Support tools with content

Tool pages target head keywords. Blog articles capture long-tail informational queries. Together they build topical authority.

4. Get systematic about backlinks

Random submissions do not compound. A tracked list of 100 directories with priority tiers creates consistent progress.

What's Next in Week 7

Continue directory submissions from the hit list
Monitor golden keyword rankings in Search Console
Potentially add GIF to Video (reverse of Video to GIF)
More technical articles for Dev.to cross-posting
Track ChatGPT vs Google ratio as more pages get indexed

Try All 15 Tools

All tools are free and process files locally in your browser:

PDF Tools

Image Tools

Video Tools

Video to GIF

Document Tools

Markdown to PDF

Developer Tools

Favicon Generator NEW

Follow the Journey

Daily updates on X: https://x.com/eduardalbu

Weekly articles on Medium and Dev.to.

Tags: #BuildInPublic #IndieHackers #SEO #MicroSaaS #NextJS #SoloFounder #KeywordResearch

Week 5: Backlinks, Directory Submissions, and the Real Bottleneck to SEO Growth

Eduard Albu — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:58:38 +0000

Week 5 brought a shift in focus.

After four weeks of shipping tools and optimizing pages, I hit a wall that every new domain eventually faces: backlinks are the bottleneck.

You can have the best tool, the cleanest UI, the fastest load times. But without referring domains, Google treats you like background noise.

This week I stopped building new features long enough to attack the backlink problem directly.

Here is everything that happened between December 4 and December 11, 2025.

The Numbers After 5 Weeks

Traffic continues growing, but the composition is what matters:

Around 3,000 monthly visitors (consistent with Week 4)
57% direct traffic (users returning with bookmarks or PWA installs)
43% from search and AI (Google, Bing, ChatGPT combined)
18% bounce rate (steady, which means people are using the tools)
Nearly 4 minutes average session (up slightly from last week)

The growth curve is real, but it's slow. This is exactly what SEO feels like in the early months.

You ship. You wait. You optimize. You wait more.

The compounding hasn't kicked in yet, but the foundation is being built.

Two New Tools Shipped This Week

I added two more tools to QuickTools.one, bringing the total to 13.

Markdown to PDF

Convert Markdown files into formatted PDFs directly in the browser. Includes support for tables, code blocks, and custom styling.

Try it: https://quicktools.one/md-to-pdf

This one targets developers and technical writers. The keyword "markdown to pdf" gets 14,800 monthly searches with a difficulty score of 41. Not easy, but not impossible either.

More importantly, it fits the narrative: QuickTools.one is becoming a place where people can actually get work done without signing up for anything.

Video to GIF

Convert MP4, WebM, or MOV files to animated GIFs directly in the browser. Includes trimming, speed control, and Discord-ready presets for files under 8MB.

Try it: https://quicktools.one/video-to-gif

This one required ffmpeg.wasm, which made it more technically complex than the PDF tools. But the keyword volume justified the effort: "video to gif" gets 90,500 monthly searches.

The difficulty is higher (76), so I targeted secondary keywords instead: "video to gif conversion" at 9,900 volume with difficulty 9.

The Backlink Grind Begins

This week I submitted QuickTools.one to four high-value directories:

AlternativeTo (listed and live). This is one of the best directories for tool sites because users actively search for alternatives to established products.

Capterra (listed and live). B2B focused but still valuable for domain authority.

IndieHackers (product page created). The community is small but highly engaged, and the dofollow link helps.

Dev.to (account set up with plans to post technical articles). Developer audience aligns with the Markdown to PDF tool.

Four new referring domains in one week. Not glamorous work, but this is how domain authority builds.

Google Search Console Revealed the Real Numbers

I spent time this week comparing backlink data across tools.

Ubersuggest showed 4 backlinks. Google Search Console showed 56.

That is a 14x difference.

Here is what I learned: third-party SEO tools have crawl limitations. They only see a fraction of what Google sees. Their crawlers are slower and less comprehensive.

Google Search Console is the most accurate source because Google has the most comprehensive web crawl. If you want to know your real backlink count, check there first.

The 56 links break down across:

Browser extension directories (chrome-stats.com, mozilla.org)
Social platforms (reddit.com)
Content marketing (medium.com)
SaaS directories (saashub.com)
Development ecosystem (npmjs.com, libraries.io)

The "free plugins equal free backlinks" strategy from earlier weeks is working. Every browser extension, npm package, and directory listing generates links automatically.

Domain Authority Is Not What You Think

I also learned something important about domain authority scores this week.

Ahrefs has Domain Rating. Moz has Domain Authority. Semrush has Authority Score.

None of these are Google metrics.

Google discontinued public PageRank in 2016 and does not publish any domain-level authority score. These third-party metrics are approximations based on each tool's own crawl data.

This means domain authority scores are useful for relative comparisons and trend tracking, but they are not absolute measurements of how Google sees your site.

Better proxies for Google's internal authority:

Actual ranking performance for target keywords
Crawl frequency in Google Search Console
Indexing speed for new pages

When I added the Video to GIF tool, it was crawled and indexed within 48 hours. That is faster than Week 1, when pages sat in "Discovered, not indexed" for days.

Indexing speed is improving. That is a real signal.

Major Refactoring for Faster Development

I spent a full day refactoring all tools into reusable components.

Before: Each tool had duplicated code for file handling, progress indicators, and download logic.

After: Shared components that can be dropped into any new tool.

The result: building new tools now takes half the time.

This is the unsexy work that never makes it into launch tweets. But it compounds. Every hour invested in infrastructure saves multiple hours on future tools.

SEO Content Updates Based on Keyword Research

Using Ubersuggest, I identified high-value keyword variations and updated page content for four existing tools:

PDF Compress (added content targeting "compress pdf specific size" and "compress pdf adobe pro")

PDF Split (added sections for "split pdf into 2 files" and "split pdf adobe acrobat")

Compress Image (expanded content around "compress image reduce size" with specific size reduction expectations)

Resize Image (consolidated five related keywords including "resize image to exact size" and "resize image maintain quality")

The strategy is consolidating related keywords into comprehensive pages rather than creating thin content across multiple pages. This avoids cannibalization and provides more value to users.

What Backlinks Taught Me This Week

Backlinks are the primary growth bottleneck for new domains.

QuickTools.one has around 20 referring domains after 5 weeks. Competitors like iLovePDF and SmallPDF have 30,000+ referring domains.

That gap explains why they rank on page 1 and I do not. Yet.

The path forward:

Continue directory submissions to high-authority platforms
Publish technical articles on Dev.to and Medium
Update browser extensions and npm packages to include new tools
Create content worth linking to (guides, comparisons, resources)

This is a multi-month process. Domain authority compounds slowly, then accelerates.

Week 5 Summary

Metric	Value
Tools live	13
New tools this week	2 (Markdown to PDF, Video to GIF)
Referring domains	Around 20
External links (GSC)	56
Monthly visitors	Around 3,000
Direct traffic	57%
Search and AI traffic	43%
Bounce rate	18%
Avg session	Around 4 min

What Is Next in Week 6

More backlink outreach to tool directories and tech blogs
Technical articles on Dev.to targeting developer keywords
Exploring GIF to Video as the next tool (8,100 volume, reuses ffmpeg.wasm)
Continue monitoring indexing speed as a proxy for authority growth

Try All 13 Tools

All tools are free and process files locally in your browser:

PDF Tools

Image Tools

Document Tools

Markdown to PDF

Video Tools

Video to GIF

Follow the Journey

Daily updates on X: https://x.com/eduardalbu

Tags: #BuildInPublic #IndieHackers #SEO #MicroSaaS #Nextjs #SoloFounder #Backlinks

Building Boring Tools That Rank: 4 Weeks, 11 Tools, and a Plot Twist with ChatGPT

Eduard Albu — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:43:19 +0000

Most indie hackers chase the next "big thing." I spent months doing exactly that, looking for some revolutionary idea that would change everything.

Then I stopped and built something boring instead.

This is the story of my first month building QuickTools.one, a collection of free, privacy-first browser tools. The goal was simple: rank on Google, capture organic traffic, hit $1K MRR.

What actually happened was way more interesting.

The Premise

I'm a system engineer from Romania working a 9-5. My side income comes from client work, not products. I wanted to test if a solo developer could build something that grows while sleeping, powered entirely by SEO.

No cold outreach. No paid ads. No Product Hunt launches. Just ranking pages that solve problems people search for every day.

The tools themselves are nothing revolutionary: merge PDFs, compress images, resize photos, extract colors. The kind of utilities millions of people need daily.

The experiment was whether I could make them rank.

Week 1: Starting the Engine

Shipped the first two tools:

PDF Merge
PDF Compress

Both process files entirely in the browser. No uploads to servers. No tracking. Everything happens locally.

Set up the basics: Next.js, Firebase analytics, proper metadata, JSON-LD schemas.

Submitted to Google Search Console and waited.

Lesson learned: New domains have zero authority. Google doesn't care about you yet.

Week 2: Shipping Fast

Went from 2 tools to 5:

Split PDF
Image Resize
Image to PDF

Fixed a bunch of SEO issues I didn't know I had:

Meta titles over 65 characters (truncated in search results)
Missing canonical URLs
No internal linking between tools

Converted the site to a PWA. Started getting my first installs.

Discovered something important: tool pages without content don't rank. Added guides, FAQs, and keyword-rich paragraphs to every page.

Started backlink outreach. Reached out to tool review sites, PDF comparison blogs, tech writers.

Biggest insight: Free plugins equal free backlinks. WordPress plugins, Chrome extensions, npm packages - all of these directories send links. iLovePDF and SmallPDF have been doing this for years.

Week 3: First Signs of Life

This was the week things started feeling real.

First 100+ visitor day. Brand searches appearing on Bing (people typing "quicktools.one" directly). Multiple tools getting crawled and indexed within 48 hours of launch.

New tools shipped:

Color Picker
Delete PDF Pages
Compress Image

Added a "smart suggestions" feature: after using one tool, the page suggests related tools. Tiny change, huge impact on retention and internal linking.

Traffic milestone: Pacing at 3,000 monthly users (organic + returning).

Submitted to Bing Webmaster Tools and Yandex. Shortly after, crawl frequency improved across all search engines. Multi-search-engine discovery might actually accelerate indexing.

Week 4: The Plot Twist

Here's where it gets weird.

I built this entire project for Google SEO. Optimized titles, wrote blog posts, chased backlinks.

Then I checked my analytics:

Traffic Source	Visitors	Share
ChatGPT	180	71%
Google	56	22%
Direct	15	5%

ChatGPT sent 3x more traffic than Google.

An AI chatbot became my biggest traffic source. I didn't optimize for this. I didn't even know it was possible.

Weekly stats:

675 unique visitors (+51% week over week)
841 visits
3,080 page views
18% bounce rate
3 min 56 sec average session

New tools shipped:

Crop Image
PDF Extract
PDF to Image

That's 11 tools live in 4 weeks.

Why Is ChatGPT Recommending My Site?

I don't know exactly, but here are my theories:

1. The tools actually work

No signups. No email gates. No dark patterns. Just tools that do what they say.

2. Privacy positioning stands out

Most PDF tools upload your files to servers. Processing everything locally in the browser is a real differentiator.

3. Clean UX signals quality

High engagement metrics (82% of visitors interact, nearly 4-minute sessions) probably matter to AI systems crawling user feedback.

4. Presence on developer platforms

Having packages on npmjs.com, extensions on Chrome Web Store and Edge Add-ons might signal legitimacy to AI systems.

What Actually Worked

Internal linking is the fastest SEO win. Every tool now links to 3-5 related tools. Creates crawl paths, topic clusters, and keeps users on site longer.

Small static links matter more than hidden JS. If a link isn't visible in HTML at load time, crawlers ignore it.

UX leads to SEO faster than expected. Behavior signals matter. Users staying longer means search engines trust the page more.

Blog posts support keywords and backlink opportunities. Comparison articles started pulling impressions after 2-3 weeks.

Multiple discovery channels reduce risk. Traffic from ChatGPT, Bing, npm, extension stores, and direct visits creates resilience. Relying only on Google is dangerous.

The Numbers After 4 Weeks

Metric	Value
Tools live	11
Monthly visitors (projected)	~3,000
Bounce rate	18%
Avg session duration	3m 56s
Top traffic source	ChatGPT (71%)
Backlinks	~20-50 (varies by tool)
Revenue	$0 (not monetized yet)

What I'd Do Differently

Track everything from day one. I forgot to log directory submissions and now can't measure which ones worked.

Start backlink outreach earlier. Domain authority is the bottleneck. The sooner you start building links, the faster pages rank.

Don't underestimate AI discovery. Building genuinely good products might be the optimization strategy for both SEO and AI recommendations.

What's Next

Video to GIF converter (high-volume keyword)
More blog content for long-tail keywords
Exploring what makes ChatGPT recommend certain tools
Continuing the npm/extension backlink strategy
Eventually: monetization with lightweight ads

Try the Tools

Everything is free and open:

Follow Along

I post daily updates on X: @eduardalbu

If you're building something small and trying to rank it, I'd love to hear what's working for you.

Tags: #buildinpublic #seo #indiehackers #webdev #nextjs