I built a property research tool. 40 pages indexed, 3 search clicks, 1 real user. Here's where I'm at
A few months ago I finished the first version of eavescore.com, a tool that lets you put in a property address and get a single report covering flood risk, bushfire risk, school zones, internet availability and public transport. You can also compare multiple addresses side by side.
The idea came from buying a house. The research process was a nightmare of government websites that don't talk to each other. I figured other people had the same problem so I built something.
The numbers so far
40 pages indexed across two sitemaps. 3 total search clicks since launch. 13 report generation events from 1 user in the last week, which was me testing it.
So basically zero real traction but the foundation is there.
What I've done
Got both sitemaps submitted and indexed. Have suburb and address level pages that Google has picked up. Haven't done any real link building or content work yet so the pages are just sitting there waiting to rank for things nobody is linking to.
Tried Reddit for early feedback and kept getting auto-removed. Started showing up in home buyer Facebook groups instead which actually got me useful conversations for the first time.
What I'm trying to figure out
The people searching for this kind of thing are typing queries like "does this suburb flood" or "school zones near me" right now. I have pages that should eventually rank for some of that but 40 indexed pages with no backlinks isn't going to do much on its own.
Do I grind content and links and wait for SEO to kick in, or focus on direct acquisition through communities where buyers already are, or both at the same time with half the effort on each?
Or did I just build something nobody but me wants?
Happy to hear from anyone who has built a tool in the local data or property space and figured out what actually moves the needle.
I don’t think this proves nobody wants it.
It more likely proves the current acquisition loop is too passive. SEO can work here, but only after you know which urgent buyer moment actually converts: flood risk before inspection, school zone check before shortlisting, internet availability before offer, or full due-diligence before buying.
If you split effort evenly between SEO and communities right now, you may just split the learning too.
I’d probably use communities first to find the strongest “I need this today” use case, then turn that exact use case into SEO pages/content after you know what people actually care about.
Happy to put a tighter first-user acquisition path in writing if useful. This is the kind of tool where the first 10 real users matter more than another 40 indexed pages.
That framing makes a lot of sense.
I've been thinking about SEO and communities as parallel tracks but you're right that I don't actually know which moment in the buying process is the one that converts yet. Going to focus on communities first and treat SEO as something to build once I know what people actually care about.
Would take you up on the acquisition path writeup if you're keen.
Appreciate that.
Drop your email and I’ll send over the tighter version properly.
The main thing I’d focus on is finding the first “I need this before I make a property decision” moment, then building the first 10-user path around that instead of guessing between SEO and communities.
[email protected] - appreciate it.