SEO log

Every SEO change on this site, with its date.

This website is a brand-new site that started in October 2026 with no history and no links. Every SEO change, what happened afterward and what I learned is recorded here with its date, including the things that did not work. Nothing here is a guarantee: new sites rarely rank quickly.

Draft targets

Where I want to be.

These are targets, not promises. I will revise them when the first real data arrives and I will report the misses.

In 3 months

A written offer with packages and scope, a reusable website audit report built from this site's own panel, and the first conversations with companies that want a pilot.

In 6 months

Two pilot companies, each with a live site, a keyword map, a monthly audit report and one tool built for their business.

In 12 months

A working affiliate module (links, tracking, commissions and payouts) running with at least one company, and a public case study with real numbers, good or bad.

What the pilot has taught me so far

What worked, what did not, and what I learned.

Honest and early. There is no traffic data yet, so the first lessons come from the research and the build.

What worked

  • Reading the real first page for each keyword. For many of my target searches the top 10 includes Reddit threads, job boards, university and government pages, which suggests a focused expert page can compete.
  • Researching in bulk: 180 keywords in two imports gave me volume and price for every one for very little research credit.

What did not work

  • Trusting the tool's competition columns. The "allintitle" and "golden score" figures loaded as almost zero for nearly every keyword, even terms with thousands of competing pages, so I threw them out and judged difficulty by reading the results myself.

Lessons learned

  • Local searches in Utah are tiny. "Business consultant utah" has about 40 searches a month and most other Utah phrases fewer than 10. Local pages are for turning visitors into leads, not for traffic. The volume is in national topics such as construction project management and templates.
  • A brand-new site has no authority, so the first months go to long-tail topics, templates and local pages, and then to earning links.
  • A host's CDN can serve old files for a year. Always check the live file, not only the local one.
  • Content alone does not bring strangers. In the first four weeks, 55 percent of Google impressions on this site came from searches for my own name, and only 2 real links pointed to it from sites I own. Authority and a clear offer are the bottleneck, so every client plan starts there.
  • It is too early to conclude anything about rankings. The first full Search Console report arrives in November.

The log

Every change, with its date.

Newest first. "Pending" means I changed something and am waiting for data to judge it.

  1. Oct 31, 2026Direction

    Moved this log to its own page. The Growth Sites project page now describes a growth program for startups, not this website.

    Done
  2. Oct 31, 2026Audit

    Audited the site, Search Console and my social profiles. Numbers for the last 28 days: 491 impressions, 3 clicks and an average position of 22.6, with 55 percent of impressions from searches for my name and only 2 real external links. The technical score of the site is 100, so the bottleneck is authority, not code.

    Done
  3. Oct 31, 2026Technical

    Shortened 19 title tags and 9 meta descriptions that Google would cut, added ProfessionalService structured data and the social profiles to the site entity, added security headers and fixed one dead link.

    Pending
  4. Oct 21, 2026Content

    Published the first three pieces of the new calendar: a pillar guide on project management in construction (about 3,800 words), a guide on what a business consultant does and Part 1 of the PMBOK series. Each has an interactive tool, a FAQ, three images and 14 or more internal links, and nine older articles now link to them. Also added a monthly newsletter box to every article.

    Pending
  5. Oct 20, 2026Optimization

    Rewrote the title tags of 12 articles to match how people search, for example "Scope Creep: What It Is and How to Stop It" instead of "How to Stop Scope Creep: Say Yes, No and Not Yet". Titles only: the headings and the web addresses did not change.

    See the 12 title changes
    • How to Stop Scope Creep: Say Yes, No and Not Yet
      Scope Creep: What It Is and How to Stop It
    • Earned Value in Plain English: Cost and Schedule
      Earned Value Management (EVM) in Plain English
    • Stakeholder Mapping: Who Can Make or Break a Project
      Stakeholder Analysis: Power-Interest Grid Guide
    • Risk Register for Small Business: A Simple Guide
      Risk Register Template and Guide for Small Business
    • Project Communication Plan People Actually Read
      Project Communication Plan: Template and Guide
    • Agile, Waterfall or Hybrid: Choose What Fits
      Agile vs Waterfall vs Hybrid: Choose What Fits
    • Dashboards Without Vanity Metrics: What to Watch
      Project Management Dashboard: What Leaders Watch
    • Project Closeout and Lessons Learned That Work
      Project Closeout Checklist and Lessons Learned
    • Capacity Planning: Find the Bottleneck Early
      Resource Capacity Planning and Bottlenecks
    • Benefits Realization: When a Project Is Really Done
      Benefits Realization Management: A Practical Guide
    • Contract Risks That Cost Projects Money
      Contract Management Best Practices for Projects
    • Change Management: Why Good Projects Fail on People
      Change Management Process: The People Side
    Pending
  6. Oct 20, 2026Research

    Researched 180 keywords in WriterZen with Google data for the United States, and read the real first page for the main ones. Findings: Utah searches are tiny, national project management and construction topics have the volume, and template searches are a real opportunity.

    Done
  7. Oct 20, 2026Technical

    Found that the host's CDN keeps files for a year and was serving old versions of three videos. Fixed it with versioned file addresses.

    Lesson
  8. Oct 20, 2026Content

    Published a free toolkit of eight templates, a guides hub that groups the 25 articles into topics, a public roadmap and links between all of them.

    Pending
  9. Oct 19, 2026Content

    Published 15 long guides (2,000 words or more) with images, FAQs, interactive tools and links between them. Internal link check: no broken links, and at least three links pointing to every page.

    Pending
  10. Oct 19, 2026Setup

    Verified the site in Google Search Console with a DNS record and submitted the sitemap.

    Done
  11. Oct 12, 2026Setup

    Launched the site with clean addresses, a sitemap, robots.txt, structured data and a title and description on every page.

    Done

Next step

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Get in touchdennis.ar@alejocorp.com