~ / insights

Insights.

Analysis, original data, guides and working templates from client work and from the sites I run. One new piece publishes each day. Every piece states its sources, marks what is uncertain, and says where I could be wrong.

analysis / 5 published

Analysis →

Position pieces. One problem or decision from real work, argued through, with the counter-case stated.

Analysis

The Lead Magnet That Made You A Data Processor

I specced a gated, server-stored version of a template library on a site I run, read what the templates ask for, and dropped the server. This is why, and what it cost.

4 Sep 2026 · 17 min read Analysis

The Blank Page Googlebot Sees

A site can pass PageSpeed, look perfect in Chrome and still hand Google an almost empty page. I found one, and the two patterns that caused it are spreading.

2 Sep 2026 · 11 min read Analysis

Staying on Wix Was the Right Call

A client asked me for the case to move to WordPress, heard it in full, and stayed where they were. They were right, and the reason is worth two thousand words.

2 Sep 2026 · 9 min read

guides / 8 published

Guides →

Step by step, with the actual commands and configuration. Written so you can follow them at the terminal.

Guide

Your 404 Page Belongs to the Framework

A branded 404 page sat unused in the web root while every missing URL got the JavaScript framework's default error. The cause was one nginx fall-through, and the fix is four lines.

10 Sep 2026 · 5 min read Guide

Two Ways a Mac Breaks a Linux Deploy

I shipped a static site from a Mac to an Ubuntu server and got nineteen junk files and a batch of 403s. Both faults came from the Mac, and both are two…

9 Sep 2026 · 5 min read Guide

Competition Research With a Crawler and a Keyword API

Crawl a competitor with Screaming Frog, pull its ranking keywords from DataForSEO, join the two, and find which page templates carry its search traffic.

7 Sep 2026 · 13 min read

reports / 3 published

Reports →

Original data I collected, with the method, the script and the raw results published alongside. Each carries a PDF.

Report

How Much of the Page Does Googlebot Get

I rendered 100 Indian IT services homepages the way a crawler does, with no scroll and no touch. On the median site, 29 percent of the words were invisible at first paint.…

2 Sep 2026 · 7 min read Report

Expired Certificates on Small Indian Websites

I scanned 500 long-tail Indian domains expecting a mess. I found 3 expired certificates, 84 percent of sites on automated 90-day certificates, and the risk concentrated in two small groups.

2 Sep 2026 · 8 min read Report

What It Costs To Track 2,000 Keywords

Four rank trackers priced against a raw SERP API for the same 2,000-keyword, two-device, weekly scope, using prices read from the vendors' own pricing pages on 1 September 2026.

2 Sep 2026 · 13 min read

templates / 7 published

Templates →

Decision instruments, not forms. Each protects one decision and produces something you can defend later. Fill them in the browser; nothing is stored.

Template

Category Focus Selector

A store with hundreds of categories cannot do SEO on all of them. This sheet scores the catalogue so the two or three you pick are a decision, not a mood.

8 Sep 2026 · 6 min read Template

AI-Tell Audit Sheet

Six measurable patterns make prose read as machine-written. This sheet measures them before anything long gets published, and it ships with the script that does the counting.

5 Sep 2026 · 5 min read Template

Entity Map Worksheet

A one-row-per-entity worksheet to fill before writing any JSON-LD for a site with more than one location, person or product.

3 Sep 2026 · 8 min read

digital-marketing-news / 4 published