Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
For the first few years of my freelance career, I was basically the architect of what I now call "digital ghost towns." I'd build these pixel-perfect websites—brand-aligned, modern, conversion-optimized. Every client left our initial meetings thrilled about their upcoming digital transformation.
Here's the thing: I was essentially training world-class sales reps to do door-to-door sales in an empty neighborhood. The websites looked amazing, converted well when someone actually found them, but nobody was finding them.
After analyzing my client portfolio, a painful pattern emerged. Beautiful websites? Check. Professional brand presence? Check. Actual visitors coming to see it? Crickets. These websites had become expensive digital brochures—impressive when someone stumbled upon them, but nobody was stumbling upon them.
This realization forced me to completely restructure my approach to website development. I discovered that without proper technical SEO web fundamentals, even the most beautifully designed site is essentially invisible to search engines.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why most businesses treat websites like brochures when they should be marketing laboratories
The fundamental shift from design-first to SEO-first architecture
How technical SEO foundations determine whether your site gets discovered or buried
The exact framework I use to build websites that actually drive organic traffic
Real examples of how proper technical implementation transformed client results
Industry Reality
What everyone gets told about website success
Most web designers and agencies will tell you that successful websites are built on great design, compelling copy, and seamless user experience. They're not wrong—these elements matter tremendously for conversion. But they're addressing only half the equation.
The industry standard approach follows this pattern:
Design-first mentality: Start with homepage mockups, create user journey flows, focus on visual hierarchy
Content as afterthought: Fill in the design with copy that fits the layout constraints
Technical implementation: Build the site to match the design specifications exactly
Launch and pray: Hope people find the beautiful site somehow
Traffic solution: When traffic doesn't materialize, throw money at paid ads
This approach creates what I call "beautiful ghost towns"—technically perfect websites that nobody visits organically. The conventional wisdom assumes that if you build something great, people will find it. But that's not how the internet works in 2025.
Most businesses end up in a cycle where they're constantly dependent on paid traffic because their site was never built with organic discovery in mind. They treat their website like a digital business card instead of what it really should be: their primary marketing and revenue engine.
The fundamental flaw in this approach? It treats technical SEO as an add-on rather than the foundation. You can't retrofit proper technical SEO onto a site that wasn't built with it in mind—it needs to be baked into the architecture from day one.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I started my freelance web design business, I was completely bought into this traditional approach. I was building gorgeous websites for SaaS companies and e-commerce stores, focusing entirely on aesthetics and conversion optimization. My clients loved the designs. They'd show them off proudly to their teams and investors.
But then the awkward conversations would start happening a few months after launch. "Why isn't anyone finding our site?" "Should we start running ads?" "Can you help us with SEO?" I'd built them beautiful stores, but those stores were located in empty malls.
I remember one particular SaaS client who had launched a genuinely innovative project management tool. We'd created this sleek, modern site with beautiful animations and a flawless user experience. The design was so good it got featured on design inspiration sites. But six months post-launch, they were getting maybe 200 organic visits per month. Meanwhile, their less attractive competitors were ranking on page one for all the keywords that mattered.
That's when I realized I had been approaching this completely backwards. I was thinking like an interior designer when I needed to be thinking like a city planner. The most beautiful building in the world is worthless if it's not connected to roads that people actually travel.
I started researching why some sites succeeded organically while others—often better designed ones—remained invisible. What I discovered was that successful websites were built with a completely different mental model. Instead of thinking "homepage first," they thought "search intent first." Instead of designing for one perfect user journey, they created multiple entry points for different types of searches.
This realization led me to study technical SEO web fundamentals not as an afterthought, but as the foundation layer that everything else builds upon. I had to unlearn everything I thought I knew about website architecture and rebuild my approach from the ground up.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
The shift from my old approach to what I call "SEO-first architecture" required completely rethinking how websites should be planned and built. Instead of starting with homepage mockups, I now start with keyword research and search intent analysis.
Here's the framework I developed after working with dozens of clients who needed to transition from beautiful ghost towns to revenue-generating machines:
Foundation Layer: Technical Infrastructure
Before touching any design elements, I audit and optimize the technical foundation. This means proper URL structure, site speed optimization, mobile-first indexing compliance, and clean HTML markup. Most designers skip this step, but it's like trying to build a house without laying a foundation.
For one SaaS client, I discovered their beautifully designed site was loading in 8+ seconds on mobile because of unoptimized images and bloated JavaScript. No amount of great content can overcome that technical barrier. After optimization, we got load times under 2 seconds, which immediately improved their search rankings.
Architecture Layer: Every Page is a Front Door
This was the biggest mindset shift. Traditional web design assumes people enter through the homepage. SEO-first architecture assumes people can enter through any page. I structure sites so every page can serve as an effective landing page for its target keywords.
I map out all potential entry points based on the keyword research. For a B2B SaaS, this might mean creating dedicated pages for different use cases, integration scenarios, and comparison terms. Each page targets specific search intent while maintaining the overall brand experience.
Content Layer: Search Intent Matching
Instead of writing content to fill design spaces, I write content that matches what people are actually searching for. This means understanding the difference between informational, navigational, and transactional intent—and structuring pages accordingly.
For example, someone searching "project management software" has different intent than someone searching "how to manage remote teams." The first needs a product page; the second needs educational content that builds trust before presenting a solution.
Measurement Layer: Organic Growth Metrics
I track different metrics than traditional web projects. Instead of just conversion rate and bounce rate, I monitor organic keyword rankings, page indexation status, Core Web Vitals scores, and organic traffic growth patterns. These metrics tell you whether your site is actually discoverable.
Technical Foundation
Start with site speed, mobile optimization, and clean code before anything else
Content Strategy
Build content around actual search queries, not just company messaging
Page Architecture
Design every page as a potential entry point, not just the homepage
Measurement Focus
Track organic discovery metrics, not just conversion optimization
The results of implementing this SEO-first approach were dramatic across multiple client projects. Instead of launching beautiful sites that struggled to gain organic traction, I started seeing consistent organic growth within 3-6 months of launch.
One SaaS client went from ranking for virtually no keywords to ranking on page one for 15+ relevant terms within four months. Their organic traffic increased from 200 monthly visits to over 2,000, with a significant portion converting to trial signups.
An e-commerce client saw their organic revenue grow from essentially zero to representing 40% of their total sales within six months. The technical optimizations alone improved their product page rankings, while the content strategy brought in customers at different stages of the buying journey.
But the most important result was sustainability. These clients no longer had to choose between organic growth and paid advertising—they had both working together. Their reduced dependency on paid ads actually allowed them to invest more in content creation and technical improvements, creating a positive feedback loop.
The sites I build now aren't just converting better when people find them—they're actually being found in the first place. That's the difference between a beautiful ghost town and a thriving digital storefront.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons I learned from transitioning to technical SEO web fundamentals as the foundation layer:
Technical optimization isn't optional: You can't build great SEO on a weak technical foundation. Site speed, mobile optimization, and clean code aren't "nice to haves"—they're prerequisites.
Architecture beats aesthetics: A well-structured site with average design will outperform a beautiful site with poor information architecture every time.
Every page needs purpose: Each page should target specific search intent and be able to serve as an entry point. Generic pages that don't match search queries are wasted opportunities.
Content follows structure: Write content that matches how people search, not just how you want to present your company. Search intent should drive content strategy.
Measurement drives improvement: Track organic discovery metrics from day one. If you're not monitoring keyword rankings and organic traffic patterns, you're flying blind.
SEO and design aren't enemies: Proper technical SEO actually enables better design by providing clear constraints and goals. It's not about sacrificing aesthetics—it's about making beautiful sites that people can actually find.
Start with distribution: Think about how people will find your site before you think about what it will look like. Distribution beats product quality every time.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies implementing technical SEO web fundamentals:
Start with keyword research for your specific use cases and integrations
Create dedicated pages for each integration and use case scenario
Optimize for "software comparison" and "alternative to X" searches
Build help documentation that targets how-to searches in your industry
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores implementing technical SEO web fundamentals:
Optimize product pages for specific product searches and shopping intent
Create category pages that target broader product category searches
Build buying guides and comparison content for research-phase searches
Implement proper schema markup for product information and reviews