Project type: Personal SEO experiment
Sites: Two free tool sites, built side by side
Platform: WordPress and Kadence
My role: Strategy, experiment design, branding, copy, SEO and analytics
Timeline: November 8, 2026 to February 6, 2027, with updates at days 30, 60 and 90
The Question
SEOs argue about aged domains a lot. Some swear a domain with history gets a head start. Others say it doesn’t matter.
I wanted to stop guessing. So I built two sites side by side to answer one question: does an aged domain with past content outrank a brand-new one?
The Setup
I bought two domains the same week.
- Site A: the aged domain. It hosted an eCommerce tools business years ago, and its history is clean. I rebuilt it around the same idea: free tools for online sellers.
- Site B: the new domain. No history at all. This one is the control: free business math tools for small business owners.
To keep it fair, both sites match everywhere except the domain:
- Same platform, theme, host and plugin list
- Same tool page layout and the same launch process for every new tool
Some things are different on purpose: branding, audience, tools and keywords. There’s no duplicate content, and the two sites never go after the same searches.
The 90 days run from November 8, 2026, the day both sites were connected to Google Search Console, to February 6, 2027.
What I Built
Site A: Tools for eCommerce Sellers
Built for small Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce and Amazon sellers, plus distributors cleaning up supplier spreadsheets.
- Live: a profit calculator and a product data cleanup tool
- Planned: a product title scorer, a shipping and dimensional weight calculator and a Google Merchant Center feed checker
Most calculator sites stop at fees and profit. This one also covers product data and catalog cleanup, including industrial specs like thread sizes, PSI and hose diameters. That’s my everyday world: I’ve managed catalogs with 15,000+ SKUs.
Site B: Business Math for Small Business Owners
Built for any busy owner who wants to know if their marketing, pricing and inventory are paying off.
- Live: a marketing ROI and ROAS calculator
- Planned: a CPA and break-even calculator, a customer lifetime value calculator, a marketing budget planner and a pricing calculator
Instead of handing back a bare number, the tools give a plain-English verdict like “you’re losing $X per sale.” They also feed each other: margin flows into break-even ROAS, then into CPA.
What Both Sites Share
- Tools run in the visitor’s browser. Nothing gets uploaded, there’s no login and no data is collected.
- Each site has its own brand, color palette, voice and keyword targets
- One blog post per tool that explains the problem it solves
- Rank Math SEO and FAQ schema on every tool page
- Search Console and GA4 connected from day one
My Role
I handled the strategy, the experiment design, branding and visual identity for both sites, page copy, blog posts, SEO setup and analytics. I reviewed and published everything. The tool code was built with Claude.
The Results So Far
I’ll update this at day 30 (December 8, 2026), day 60 (January 7, 2027) and day 90 (February 6, 2027).
| Metric | Site A (aged) | Site B (new) |
|---|---|---|
| Search impressions | Coming Dec 8 | Coming Dec 8 |
| Search clicks | Coming Dec 8 | Coming Dec 8 |
| Top keywords and position | Coming Dec 8 | Coming Dec 8 |
| Tool uses | Coming Dec 8 | Coming Dec 8 |
| Contact form messages | Coming Dec 8 | Coming Dec 8 |
Day 30 (December 8, 2026)
First numbers coming December 8, 2026.
Day 60 (January 7, 2027)
Coming January 7, 2027.
Day 90 (February 6, 2027)
Coming February 6, 2027.
What I Learned
Coming after the test ends on February 6, 2027.
Skills
eCommerce · SEO · Product data · WordPress development · Analytics setup · Brand identity · Content strategy
Follow Along
I’m sharing the numbers on LinkedIn as they come in.