DormTool

Last time I posted about how DormTool came to be (the freshman move-in disaster + helping my cousin pack). Quick update, plus a mistake I almost made this week that might be useful if you're running a content-heavy site solo.

Progress

The move-out checklist and first-apartment checklist I mentioned wanting to build? Both live now. Up to 13 tools and 20+ blog posts at this point.

This week's lesson

Going through Search Console, I found two pairs of articles quietly competing for the exact same keywords — one pair on calculating GPA, another on cleaning your dorm room. Same search terms, traffic split between two pages, neither one ranking.

Fix: read both articles in full side by side — not just the titles. Similar titles don't necessarily mean duplicate content. I almost merged two other articles (both about rent budgeting) because the titles looked alike, then actually read them and realized they served completely different audiences. Left those alone.

For the two pairs that were genuinely redundant: pulled whatever unique content the weaker page had into the stronger one, 301-redirected the weaker page, and tracked down every internal link pointing to it.

Also caught something dumber while I was in there: one article had zero impressions in Search Console. Turned out it had just never been submitted for indexing. Requested indexing manually, done. Easy to miss, embarrassing when you find it.

Side note

Also looked into a new topic (summer subletting) that seemed like an obvious content gap. Checked actual search volume in Google Keyword Planner before writing anything — turned out almost nobody searches for it. Skipped it. Data over gut feeling, even when the gut feeling seems obvious.

If you're doing solo content/SEO work, hopefully that's useful — check the data before trusting the intuition, and fix what you find instead of just piling on more content.

Same link as always: dormtool.com.

I showed up to college with two suitcases, a trash bag full of hangers, and a mini fridge I carried up three flights of stairs by myself.

My roommate brought a backpack.

We had never talked before. Not once. We figured out the hard way that he went to bed at 9pm and I went to bed at 2am. That lasted about two weeks before it got awkward.

That was a few years ago. Last summer I was helping my cousin pack for her first year and realized — nothing has changed. Same generic checklists from colleges. Same "good luck figure it out" vibe.

So I started building stuff.

What I made

DormTool is a collection of free tools for college students. No signups. No data collection. Just single-page tools that do one thing and get out of your way. (https://dormtool.com/)

Right now there's:

• A dorm checklist that tracks what you've packed and what you still need

• A roommate agreement generator so you don't have the 2am bedtime argument I had

• A bill splitter for off-campus rent and utilities

• A rent affordability calculator so you know if you can actually afford that apartment

• A student loan calculator because nobody explains interest

• A GPA calculator for when you need to figure out what grade you need on the final

And a few more. All free.

Why not a mobile app

Because you don't want to download an app you'll use once. These are web tools. Open the page, get your answer, close it. Nothing to install.

Is it making money?

Not really. There's Amazon affiliate links on the checklist. It covers hosting. That's about it.

What's next

More tools. A move-out checklist. A first-apartment checklist. Stuff I wished existed when I was figuring this out.

If you're a student — or know one — send them the link. It's dormtool.com. Free, no signup, works on any device.

I'm just trying to make move-in day slightly less terrible for the next person.