Blog

DNS records explained: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT and the rest

What each DNS record type does, when to use A versus CNAME at the apex, how TTLs work, and the records that decide whether your email lands in spam.

Does domain age affect SEO? What the data actually supports

Whether domain age is a Google ranking factor, why old domains often rank better anyway, and what to check before paying a premium for an aged domain.

Domain authority: what the number does and doesn't mean

How domain authority and domain rating are calculated, why Google does not use them, and how to read the score when judging a link opportunity.

FAQ schema after the rich result: still worth it?

Why Google restricted FAQ rich results, what FAQPage markup still does for AI answers, and how to write questions worth marking up.

Favicon sizes in 2026: which five files you actually need

Every favicon size browsers and mobile devices request, the HTML that declares them, and why your new icon is still not showing up.

How to get your first 100 users when nobody knows you

The channels that actually produce the first hundred users for a product with no audience, in the order they work, with realistic numbers for each.

Heading structure: one H1, descriptive H2s, and why

How to structure H1–H6 for search engines, screen readers and AI answer engines, and whether multiple H1s are actually a problem.

How to calculate MRR, and four ways it goes wrong

How to calculate monthly recurring revenue correctly, and the four accounting mistakes that make the number look better than it is.

Calculating marketing ROI when the payback takes months

How to calculate marketing ROI when payback takes months, which costs belong in the denominator, and how to handle attribution honestly.

How to decode a JWT (and what every claim actually means)

Decode a JSON Web Token by hand or in the browser, understand every registered claim, and know exactly why decoding is not the same as verifying.

How to get backlinks when nobody has heard of you

The link sources that actually work for a product with no audience, ranked by effort against return, and the ones that waste your evenings.

Tracking launch day traffic so the numbers mean something

What to set up before a launch, which numbers actually tell you anything, and why your biggest traffic source is usually your worst one.

Prove your startup's numbers without exposing them

What you can verify about traffic and revenue, what stays private when you do, and why a banded verified figure beats an exact self-reported one.

Image optimization: the four decisions that matter

Format, dimensions, compression level and loading strategy - the four image decisions that decide your LCP, with the numbers to use for each.

The indie hacker's guide to shipping what people pay for

What actually separates indie products that reach revenue from the ones that stall - scope, distribution, pricing and the honesty to kill things.

Why your JSON won't parse, and how to find the character

The five things that make JSON invalid, how to read a parser error into a line and column, and what JSON does not allow that every other format does.

Keyword density is not a target: what to check instead

Why keyword density stopped being a ranking factor, what percentage reads as stuffing to a human, and the on-page placement that still matters.

llms.txt: worth adding, and honest about what it does

What the llms.txt proposal specifies, how it differs from robots.txt, whether any AI engine reads it yet, and what actually gets you cited in AI answers.

The LTV:CAC ratio, and why 3:1 is not always the goal

How to calculate LTV:CAC without fooling yourself, what the ratio hides, and why CAC payback period is the more useful number for a bootstrapped product.

noindex three ways: meta robots, X-Robots-Tag and robots.txt

The three mechanisms for controlling indexing, which one to use for which case, and the combination that accidentally keeps a page in the index forever.