Six months ago I got tired of doing hydration math on a napkin. So I built SourdoughCalc - a free calculator with 34 SEO-friendly articles.
Six months ago I got tired of doing hydration math on a napkin every time I baked sourdough at home. So I built SourdoughCalc - a free hydration calculator with 34 SEO-friendly articles. Here is what I learned shipping a zero-cost indie project.
The Stack
- Next.js 14 App Router (TypeScript + Tailwind)
- Cloudflare Pages for hosting ($0/mo, global CDN, sub-second TTFB)
- Playwright for e2e tests
- 34 hand-written articles targeting sourdough keywords
Total monthly cost: $0.
The SEO Strategy That Worked
I did not try to rank for "sourdough" (impossible for a new site). Instead I targeted long-tail:
| Keyword | Monthly Volume | Position |
|---|---|---|
| "65% hydration sourdough" | ~7,200 | Top 5 |
| "sourdough hydration calculator" | ~4,500 | Top 3 |
| "high vs low hydration sourdough" | ~2,000 | Top 10 |
Every article follows the same template:
- Answer the question in the first 100 words
- Add a FAQ schema block (FAQPage JSON-LD)
- Link to 3-5 other articles in the cluster
What I Would Do Differently
- GSC indexing speed: Do not batch-submit. Submit URL individually for faster pickup.
- FAQ schema: Mandatory. Google shows FAQ rich snippets, which doubles CTR.
- Comparison tables: I added 3-column comparison tables in 6 articles. They get featured snippets.
The Real Win
The calculator is the hook. 34 articles are the asset. SEO compounds. Six months in, I am getting 5x more organic traffic than the launch day spike ever was.
Try It
Free, no signup: sourdough-hydrationcalculator.com
If you have questions about the SEO or the build, drop a comment. I will answer.
