1. Aura++: Launch your project and increase online aura Ten days after a launch, I stop checking referrers and open Search Console instead.

Ten days after a launch, the author stops checking referrers and turns to Search Console instead to evaluate the online aura of their project. They wait about ten days to examine Search Console, looking for pages that already almost work. The author's rule is to check the Performance report, last 28 days, queries tab, and sort by impressions.

They aim to find queries where the average position is between 8 and 20, and the CTR is tiny. Google has already deemed the page somewhat relevant, but it's just not ranking well on the first page or convincing users to click. The author then clicks into the query and switches to the pages tab to identify which URL is ranking. Often, it's the wrong page, such as a pricing question appearing on the homepage or a setup question ranking on a blog post months old that barely answers it.

The author's fixes are relatively straightforward, making the title reflect the user's query, answering the question in the first two lines instead of after a story, and adding an internal link from pricing or the homepage to the desired page. They avoid starting a fresh blog post simply because a topic feels exciting or writing for a keyword with zero impressions, even if it describes their category perfectly.

The author has done that too many times and even wrote about it in "Stop Writing SEO Posts for a Keyword Nobody Searches Yet."

Two caveats to the author's method are that Search Console data lags a couple of days, and with small numbers, one week doesn't tell you much. Instead, they compare 28 days against the previous 28 days instead of week-to-week. If the site is brand new, it may show almost nothing yet. The primary focus is on plumbing first: ensuring the sitemap is submitted, there are no accidental noindex tags, and titles match the content on the page.

The author's longer perspective on product-shaped pages, such as use cases, comparisons, docs, and integrations, is detailed in "Indie SaaS SEO" on DEV. Launch boards are still where the first eyes come from, but most of the work is built out of pages you already have. After a launch, some may return to the position 8 to 20 queries, while others immediately start writing new content.