From free SEO tool to $18k MRR: Nick Swan's journey with SEO Testing

Executive overview

Running an internal tool for your own SEO work is useful — but turning it into a SaaS requires clear positioning, not just useful features. Nick Swan built SEO Testing (originally Sanity Check) to track page performance in Google Search Console, grew it as a free beta, then pivoted the name and rebuilt the product to escape comparisons with tools like Ahrefs.

Renaming and repositioning — not new features — unlocked faster growth: SEO Testing reached the same MRR as its predecessor in nine months that took Sanity Check two and a half years.

Positioning clarity matters more than feature parity.

Building the original tool

• Ran an affiliate voucher-code site requiring constant page-title click-through-rate testing
• Tracking results in spreadsheets daily was too slow, so built a tool to automate it
• Google Search Console API provided the data; initial feature was archiving data beyond the 3-month limit
• Shared a bare-bones free beta in SEO Facebook groups and Slack communities
• Explicitly communicated from sign-up that it would become a paid product
• Early users drove feature requests; most requests improved the testing workflow he was already using himself

Launching paid plans

• Free beta ran for ~five months before switching to paid with a 14-day trial
• Initial pricing was $10/month per website — acknowledged as too low in retrospect
• Planned launch was derailed when his daughter Isabel was diagnosed with leukaemia; delayed ~three months
• Hospital time became planning time: thinking on paper meant focused, efficient coding sessions when a laptop was available
• Communicated the family situation to users; maintained that relationship throughout 18 months of treatment
• Post-launch surge of converted beta users followed by the slow SaaS ramp — prompted the need for real marketing

Platform risk and the Google Search Console dependency

• Google released 18 months of historical data in January 2018, removing the main value of Sanity Check's archiving feature
• Built on an external API meant features could be deprecated by the platform owner at any time
• Previous company (Lightning Tools) had the same problem building on Microsoft SharePoint
• Drip faced similar issues via email blacklists — platform risk exists at every level, just in different forms

Renaming and repositioning to SEO Testing

• MRR plateaued; customer interviews revealed successful users cared about the testing functionality, not data archiving
• Agencies and general SEO users were comparing Sanity Check to Ahrefs and SEMrush — not a winnable comparison
• Read April Dunford's positioning framework; had a 30-minute consultation with Asia Arangio to validate the pivot
• Checked seotesting.com on a whim — it was listed for $2,500, bought it
• Rebuilt the app from scratch over four months to remove archiving logic and work directly with the Search Console API
• Launched SEO Testing as a fresh free beta; COVID hit the same week paid plans were due to launch (second consecutive external disruption)

Growth and finding product-market fit

• SEO Testing reached Sanity Check's peak MRR in nine months vs two and a half years
• Clearer name meant prospects immediately understood what they were signing up for — an easier sell
• Word of mouth from SEO communities drove consistent organic growth
• Twitter advertising worked well given the density of SEO practitioners on the platform
• Agencies emerged as a key segment: using the tool to demonstrate ROI to clients via before/after comparisons
• Two distinct use cases: active A/B-style SEO testing, and ongoing performance reporting for client retainers

Building the team and stepping back from code

• Ran as a solo founder intentionally after managing teams of 15–20 at previous companies
• Loneliness and lack of direction prompted the decision to build a team in 2021
• Phil (technical co-founder) started as a contractor on specific features; equity and co-founder status followed naturally
• Tiago joined for customer support and content; freelancers used for design and ad hoc work
• Reviewed two years of journals before the interview; a recurring theme was failing to do marketing work during self-declared "marketing weeks"
• Committed to stopping all coding to focus on marketing — a significant identity shift for a developer of 20+ years
• Tiny Seed investment used as a forcing function for long-term planning, which Isabel's illness had made difficult