These sites are easy to build and Google loves them

I’ve looked at thousands of website traffic graphs since Google’s most recent Helpful Content Update.

It seems like 99% of sites I looked at suffered massive drops.

Except for one type of site.

Web-based tools. Sites with utility beyond informational content.

Some examples:

• Twittervid - A Twitter video downloader. Very simple tool site with just 18 pages (for different languages). Less than a year old. 1.1 million visitors/month according to Ahrefs:

• Fontbolt - Copy and paste famous fonts. 1 and a half year-old site. 172,000 visitors/month according to Ahrefs. Unaffected by the recent Google updates:

• Loremipsum.io - Super simple site to generate lorem ipsum placeholder text. 318,000 visitors/month according to Ahrefs. Unaffected by Google updates.

I found all these examples using Site Stats Database. There are hundreds more. Quick reminder that 50% off the lifetime plan ends tonight, at 11:59pm CST (about 10 hours from now).

Tool sites aren’t always unaffected by Google updates. Plenty are. But not nearly as often as content sites.

I mentioned tool sites in a previous email. Here’s what I said:

“Tool sites are becoming more and more attractive to me.

• The amount of traffic they can generate is ridiculous.

• The ad revenue potential is great.

• If it makes sense, they can be turned into SaaS products to generate recurring revenue.

• They don’t require new content all the time.

• You don’t have to go back and update old content.

• And, Google seems to like them.

The barrier to entry is that you need to have some knowledge of code (or no-code platforms like Bubble) to build them. Although, ChatGPT is quickly turning non-developers like myself into slightly more capable non-developers. 😆 

The trouble with tool sites is marketing. But hey, we’re all internet marketers, right? It’s not THAT difficult. Product Hunt, TikTok, and building in public seem to work well for those who try.”

A couple months ago, I even built my own tool site. It got a bunch of traffic when I first shared it on Twitter, and ever since it’s gotten a trickle from search engines. Maybe I should spend more time working on it?

The site is Better Calculate. Right now it just has a sleep calculator.

My goal was to see whether I could get ChatGPT to code a working web-based tool. It took some back and forth, but I eventually got it to work perfectly (and I think it’s better than the other sleep calculators out there)!

So yes, even if you aren’t a developer, you can create tool sites with a bit (okay, a LOT) of help from AI.

By the way… if you want all my SEO-related AI prompts and direct access to me and many other experienced SEOs/website builders, check out Website Growth Mastermind - it’s just $15/mo.

I plan to built more web-based tools.

Either as standalone projects, or additions to my current sites.

For example, I plan to add some simple tools for niche site builders to Site Stats Database. That would be a great way to get boatloads of valuable organic traffic.

I recommend you do the same for your sites. There are tools you can build in just about any niche.

If you want hundreds more ideas for tool sites, check out Site Stats Database.

In the niche field, search “generator” or “calculator”. Both searches return 500+ results. That’s about 1,000 tool sites to analyze and draw inspiration from. 🤯 

The lifetime deal for Site Stats Database is 50% off until 11:59pm Central Standard Time tonight. That’s about 10 hours from now.

So if you’ve been considering buying access, now’s the time. I won’t be extending the discount any longer.

Let me know if you have any questions about tool sites or Site Stats Database!

Thanks for reading. Hope this gave you some new ideas!

Ian