SEOTesting
👤 Nick Swan (In SEO since 1998; sold a SharePoint add-on in 2013 and ran affiliate SEO sites — a developer who WAS the SEO he built for.)🌐 site𝕏LinkedIn
Google made his product pointless overnight. He rebuilt, not rebranded — and it became a $200K/yr SEO testing SaaS.
Will it work? · our read
Survived Google. A practitioner-built niche SaaS that's genuinely sticky — but it rents all its oxygen from Google. The 2019 near-death proved the risk; the rebuild proved the founder can adapt.
01How the money moves
Connect Google Search Console + Analytics
→
Run structured SEO tests, auto-build client reports
→
Pay $50-375/mo per website tracked
02The numbers
about $18K
MRR
founder '23
330+
paying customers
founder '23
3
person team
site '26
Founder-stated on Startups For The Rest of Us (ep. 626, 2023); likely higher today. Ep. 626
About $18K MRR (about $216K ARR), 330+ customers — founder-stated, 2023.
03Weight class — CENTStap an axis
Control Low
Both the data (Search Console API) and demand (SEO's relevance) are Google's to change. Little leverage over either.
04The key move
Rebuild, not rebrand
Google's 2019 change to retain 16 months of Search Console data killed SanityCheck's core pitch. Nick researched customers, then rebuilt from scratch on a new domain, relaunching as a free beta in April 2020.
fact
The counter-intuitive move
The easy fix was tweaking the old code and hoping a new name stuck. He scrapped it, wrote fresh software from customer research, and gave it away free to rebuild trust from zero.
our read
05Where the moat is
Tiny tool, real stickiness:
Founder was the SEO he built it forOwns the 'SEO testing' content nicheSwitching loses months of test historyBaked into agencies' client reporting
06How it diesmedium confidence
Google is both the data source and the reason SEO exists. Restrict the Search Console API — or let Ahrefs/Semrush bundle testing free — and the oxygen vanishes. SanityCheck already nearly died this way once. our read
Show evidence · counter
Evidence: When Google extended Search Console retention to 16 months in 2019, SanityCheck's core value evaporated (founder-documented).
Counter: He already survived one Google-driven near-death by rebuilding from scratch, and big suites still ignore this narrow niche — the brand and test-history give real insulation.
07Against rivals
We win the narrow job (structured SEO tests + GSC reporting); suites win on breadth. our read
08Who uses it
In-house SEO teamsSEO & digital agenciesEcommerce SEOSEO consultantsContent marketers
★Would it work for you?
Is there a niche where you ARE the customer — enough to out-build the generalists?
SEOTesting won on founder-market fit, not tech. Where's your unfair domain access? We don't score you — you answer.
🚀Use it as a launchpada prompt for your own AI
Copy → paste into your AI → then develop it freely in the conversation.
You are a sharp, honest startup strategist. Use the proven case below as a launchpad for MY idea — help me find my own angle, not copy it.
<my_profile>
Domain I know: [your domain]
My unfair advantage (access/audience): [your edge]
Interests: [your interests]
Resources & goal: [your resources] · [your goal]
</my_profile>
<case name="SEOTesting" model="saas">
What it does: A SaaS that turns Google Search Console data into structured, repeatable SEO experiments and client-ready reports.
Why it won (moat): Founder-market fit, ownership of the SEO-testing content niche, and test-history lock-in.
Weakest axis (CENTS): Total dependence on Google's Search Console API and on SEO staying a paid discipline.
How it could die: Google restricts the API or a Semrush/Ahrefs bundles SEO testing free.
</case>
<task>
Be a skeptical operator, not a cheerleader. No generic startup platitudes. If my angle is weak, say so plainly.
First, a reality check: markets like this mostly fail. State the honest base rate (how crowded/hard is this?) and the ONE specific thing that would have to be true for ME to be the exception — grounded in my profile above.
Then a compact table:
- Fit — does this pattern suit my edge, or fight my gap?
- Angle — my sharpest differentiation vs SEOTesting (concrete, not "better UX")
- Distribution — exactly where my first 100 users come from (this is the hardest part — be specific, not "content marketing")
- Risk — its "how it dies" (above) in MY situation
Finish with one line: "The single thing to do next."
Use only the facts above; if data is thin, say so — never invent numbers.
Then stay with me and go deeper on whatever I ask — tech stack, rough cost & time, the smallest MVP to test, pricing, or timing.
</task>
✓ Copied — paste into your AI
👤Placeholders like [your domain] auto-fill from your profile — example values for now.Set up profile →
Sourcesupdated · daily
Startups For The Rest of Us, ep. 626 — founder states about $18K MRR, 330+ customers (2023)Stacking Pancakes interview — the SanityCheck-to-SEOTesting forced rebuild, research-first, free beta relaunch in April 2020SEOTesting.com/about — origin story, 3-person team, Bude UKThe Business Journal — $150K (£120K / about $150K) TinySeed round, 2022SEOTesting.com/pricing — $50-375/mo tiers, 14-day trial
Revenue is first-party but dated: Nick Swan stated about $18K MRR / 330+ customers on the Startups For The Rest of Us podcast (ep. 626, 2023) — real and STATED, but from 2023 and likely higher in 2026, so I mark it approximate, not current. The company self-labels "bootstrapped, no venture funding," yet took a $150K (£120K) TinySeed round in 2022; TinySeed is a minimal-dilution accelerator, so "bootstrapped" is defensible framing, not literally zero outside capital — flagged. The Google-driven near-death and the ground-up rebuild (customer research, new domain, free beta relaunch in April 2020) are founder-documented, not invented. Pricing ($50-375/mo) is from the live site (2026). We never score you.