DEV Community: Gavin Builds

I Debugged Why My 0-Click SEO Tool Site Had Corrupted Titles

Gavin Builds — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 23:30:07 +0000

PupVax (https://pupvax.com) has been getting about 200 Google impressions per month but zero clicks. Zero.

That felt wrong. If Google is showing your pages, why would nobody click?

I finally dug into the production HTML and found the answer: every page title had corrupted characters. The em dash (—) I used in my Next.js source files turned into replacement characters (��) in the deployed output.

Here is what the title looked like in Google SERPs:

2026 Dog Vaccines Explained �� Core, Non-Core and the Full Schedule | PupVax | 2026 Dog Vaccine Tracker

Three problems in one title:

Mo -jibake (corrupted characters) — looks broken and untrustworthy
Double branding — the page said | PupVax and the layout template added | 2026 Dog Vaccine Tracker
Too long — Google truncates at around 60 characters

The fix (8 pages, one variable)

I went through all 8 pages with em dashes and:

Replaced — with ASCII colon :
Removed page-level | PupVax (layout template handles branding)
Kept everything else the same — same content, same pages, same backlinks

Example:

Before: 2026 Dog Vaccines Explained — Core, Non-Core and the Full Schedule | PupVax
After: 2026 Dog Vaccines Explained: Core, Non-Core and the Full Schedule | 2026 Dog Vaccine Tracker

Clean, single-branded, no corrupted characters.

Deploy and verify

npm run build passed. Pushed to GitHub. Cloudflare Pages Actions deployed. Verified production HTML — titles are clean.

What I learned

A broken character in a title is not a minor thing. If Google shows your page 200 times and the title looks corrupted, of course nobody clicks. The em dash is a valid UTF-8 character, but something in the Next.js static export or Cloudflare Pages pipeline mangled it. ASCII is safer for metadata.

The bigger picture

I am maintaining 8 small browser tools (all open source on GitHub at Gavin1901). Yesterday freetdee.com got its first click after weeks of sitemap fixes and title optimization. Today I fixed PupVax titles. ZonePlan has 4 indexed URLs out of 89 — that is the next one to tackle.

All 8 tools: https://github.com/Gavin1901/free-browser-tools-index

No frameworks. No SaaS pricing. Just small tools that solve one job, deployed on Cloudflare Pages, pushed by GitHub Actions.

How I Built 8 Free Browser Tools With AI — First Click Milestone

Gavin Builds — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:41:07 +0000

Today I hit a small milestone with my 8 free browser tools: the weakest site got its first Google click.

What I built

Eight free browser tools, all static sites built with Next.js and deployed on Cloudflare Pages:

LivePhotoKit — HEIC & Live Photo converter
iWorkViewer — Open Apple iWork files online
PlantingCalendar — USDA zone planting calendar
BabyPercent — Baby growth percentile calculator
FreeTDEE — TDEE, calorie & macro calculator
InvoicePad — Invoice & receipt generator
ZonePlan — Time zone meeting planner
PupVax — Puppy vaccine schedule

All open source on GitHub.

How I do daily maintenance

Every day I run a 7-step routine:

Health check: curl all 8 homepages, robots.txt and sitemaps
IndexNow: submit 20 URLs per site to Bing/IndexNow API
GSC data: scrape Google Search Console for clicks, impressions, CTR
Deep SEO audit: noindex, canonical, title, GA4, AdSense, schema
Pick the weakest site and change exactly one variable
Publish 3-5 backlinks on GitHub and Dev.to
Log everything to a public evidence repo

Today's signal

FreeTDEE.com got its first organic click. It was 0 clicks for weeks. A GSC query check showed "tdee macro calculator" had 6 impressions at position 43 but zero clicks. So I updated the macro-calculator page title from "Macro Calculator 2026" to "TDEE Macro Calculator 2026" to match the search query exactly.

One variable. I'll check GSC in 2-3 days.

What I learned

Don't change five things at once. Change one. Wait for data.
Git push is not deploy. Always verify the live domain.
The weakest site just broke zero. The method works.

Next: PupVax (0 clicks), ZonePlan (only 4 pages indexed).

Five Free Browser Tools for Everyday Planning in 2026

Gavin Builds — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 01:34:04 +0000

Small browser tools can save time when they solve one narrow problem without sign-up, downloads, or data uploads. Here are five practical resources I updated and verified today.

1. Plan a calorie deficit

The free calorie deficit calculator helps estimate a daily calorie target from maintenance calories and a weight-loss goal. Use the result as a planning estimate, not medical advice.

2. Build a puppy vaccination timeline

The puppy vaccine schedule by age shows the typical 6-to-16-week sequence and links to a birthday-based schedule builder. Always confirm dates with a veterinarian.

3. Track puppy deworming dates

The puppy deworming schedule gives owners a simple age-based checklist and explains what information to record before a vet visit.

4. Create a freelancer invoice

The free freelancer invoice template covers project fees, hourly work, retainers, expenses, deposits, and payment terms. It generates a PDF directly in the browser.

5. Coordinate meetings in UTC

The UTC meeting planner explains a reliable workflow for distributed teams and links to a live multi-time-zone planner.

Why these tools are useful

Each resource has a focused purpose, a clean URL, a mobile-friendly interface, and no mandatory account. I also verified that all five public pages return HTTP 200 and are included in their site sitemaps.

If you build small web utilities, this is a useful product lesson: solve one clear intent, make the result immediately usable, and keep the privacy promise easy to understand.

I Built a Tiny Browser Tool for Opening Apple iWork Files Without a Mac

Gavin Builds — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 11:28:46 +0000

I kept running into a small but annoying file problem.

Someone would send me an Apple Pages, Numbers, or Keynote file, but I was not always on a Mac.

If you are using Windows, Android, Linux, or a shared device, opening an iWork file can become more complicated than it should be.

So I built iWorkViewer.

It is a lightweight browser-based viewer for Apple iWork files:

Pages files
Numbers files
Keynote files

The goal is not to build a huge document suite. The goal is to remove the first painful step: just let me open and read the file.

Product Hunt launch is scheduled for July 21, 2026.

Tool: https://iworkviewer.com/?ref=devto

Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/products/iworkviewer?launch=iworkviewer

Pre-launch discussion: https://www.producthunt.com/p/iworkviewer/what-is-the-most-annoying-part-of-opening-apple-iwork-files-without-a-mac

I would love feedback from anyone who has dealt with Apple-only file formats on non-Apple devices.

8 Free Browser Tools I’m Maintaining as Small SEO Assets

Gavin Builds — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:20:11 +0000

8 Free Browser Tools I’m Maintaining as Small SEO Assets

I’m maintaining a small set of free browser tools and using them as a practical SEO asset chain instead of treating them as one-off side projects.

The current sites are:

iWorkViewer for opening Apple iWork files online
LivePhotoKit for HEIC and Live Photo conversion
PlantingCalendar for USDA zone planting calendars
FreeTDEE for TDEE, BMR, calorie, and macro calculations
BabyPercent for baby growth percentile checks
InvoicePad for invoices, quotes, and receipts
ZonePlan for time zone meeting planning
PupVax for dog vaccine schedule tracking

The maintenance loop is simple:

Keep the home page, robots.txt, and sitemap.xml live.
Submit updated URLs through IndexNow.
Check Search Console after the indexing delay.
Improve pages with impressions but weak clicks.
Add stronger internal links for pages that are discovered but not indexed.

Today’s priority sites are ZonePlan, FreeTDEE, PupVax, and InvoicePad because they need more indexing and click-through improvement.

The main lesson: building a tool is only the first step. The real asset is the repeatable chain: source code, deployment, crawlability, public links, Search Console feedback, and the next optimization loop.

I am maintaining 8 small AI built browser tools instead of starting another new project

Gavin Builds — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:35:56 +0000

Over the last few days, I stopped chasing new ideas for a moment and went back to maintain the small browser tools I had already shipped.

Right now I am maintaining 8 small tools:

iWorkViewer for opening Apple iWork files online

https://iworkviewer.com/
LivePhotoKit for working with Live Photo and HEIC files

https://livephotokit.com/
Planting Calendar for garden planning by zone

https://plantingcalendar.net/
FreeTDEE for calorie, macro and TDEE calculation

https://freetdee.com/
BabyPercent for baby growth percentile checking

https://babypercent.com/
InvoicePad for simple invoices, estimates and receipts

https://invoicepad.net/
ZonePlan for international meeting planning

https://zoneplan.net/
PupVax for puppy vaccine schedules

https://pupvax.com/

The biggest lesson is simple:

Shipping the tool is not the finish line.

It is the starting line.

A small tool only becomes a real asset after it has search visibility, clean pages, indexable URLs, useful internal links, and some external references.

So instead of building another random idea, I focused on the boring maintenance layer:

Check whether the homepage is live.
Check robots.txt and sitemap.xml.
Review page titles and meta descriptions.
Make sure canonical tags are present.
Check that pages are not accidentally noindexed.
Look at Google Search Console data.
Find weak sites with low clicks and low indexing.
Add internal links to high intent pages.
Create external references from public pages.
Keep a public log so the work can be verified later.

This changed how I think about AI coding.

AI can help me build faster, but speed alone is not enough.

If I keep starting new projects without maintaining the old ones, I am just creating digital clutter.

The better path is to treat every small site as a tiny SEO asset.

That means each tool needs:

A clear search intent.
A useful page that answers that intent.
A crawlable structure.
A sitemap that search engines can trust.
Internal links to deeper pages.
External links from relevant public pages.
Regular Search Console review.

The weak sites are usually the most useful teachers.

If a site has impressions but almost no clicks, I need to improve the title, the angle or the page match.

If a site has very few indexed pages, I need to improve the crawl path, sitemap and internal links.

If a site has no impressions at all, maybe the topic is too weak, the pages are too thin, or Google has not found enough reasons to care.

This is what I am learning now:

AI coding is not just about making apps.

It is about building and maintaining small assets that can slowly earn search traffic.

The boring work matters.

The maintenance work matters.

The logs matter.

The follow up matters.

My next step is to keep improving the weaker tools, especially FreeTDEE, PupVax, InvoicePad and ZonePlan.

I will keep adding better long tail pages, improving internal links, and publishing external references from places like GitHub, Dev.to, Medium and Gist.

The goal is not to make one viral launch.

The goal is to make these small tools easier for search engines to understand, crawl and rank over time.

Eight AI-Built Browser Tools I Maintained Today

Gavin Builds — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:04:57 +0000

I am keeping a public maintenance trail for eight small browser tools built with AI.

Today I opened the sites, checked the crawl basics, submitted the URLs again, and reinforced the weaker tools with public backlinks.

The eight tools

iWorkViewer: https://iworkviewer.com/
LivePhotoKit: https://livephotokit.com/
PlantingCalendar: https://plantingcalendar.net/
FreeTDEE: https://freetdee.com/
BabyPercent: https://babypercent.com/
InvoicePad: https://invoicepad.net/
ZonePlan: https://zoneplan.net/
PupVax: https://pupvax.com/

Weak-site reinforcement

The weaker sites for this round are FreeTDEE, PupVax, ZonePlan, and InvoicePad. I added public references for their main pages and useful inner pages.

FreeTDEE calorie calculator:
https://freetdee.com/calorie-calculator/

PupVax puppy vaccine schedule:
https://pupvax.com/puppy-vaccine-schedule/

ZonePlan global meeting planner:
https://zoneplan.net/global-meeting-planner/

ZonePlan world clock meeting planner:
https://zoneplan.net/world-clock-meeting-planner/

InvoicePad invoice templates:
https://invoicepad.net/invoice-templates/

Public evidence

Daily indexing note:
https://github.com/Gavin1901/free-browser-tools-index/blob/master/daily/2026-07-16-ai-tool-indexing-maintenance.md

Backlink reinforcement note:
https://github.com/Gavin1901/free-browser-tools-index/blob/master/daily/2026-07-16-backlink-reinforcement.md

Full public index:
https://github.com/Gavin1901/free-browser-tools-index

This is the boring but necessary part of AI programming outbound: keep the tools live, crawlable, linked, and verifiable.

Four Small Browser Tools I Am Reinforcing for Search in 2026

Gavin Builds — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 23:47:40 +0000

I am keeping a public maintenance trail for a small group of free browser tools built with AI.

This round is focused on four weaker sites that need more crawl signals and public references.

1. FreeTDEE

FreeTDEE is a browser-based calorie, BMR, TDEE, and macro calculator.

Link: https://freetdee.com/

Why I am reinforcing it:

useful but still weak in search
calculator intent is competitive
needs more public references and long-tail coverage

2. PupVax

PupVax helps dog owners create a simple puppy vaccine schedule.

Link: https://pupvax.com/

Why it matters:

new dog owners search with urgent intent
the site has a clear utility page
vaccine and reminder queries can become long-tail traffic

3. ZonePlan

ZonePlan is a meeting time zone planner for remote teams.

Link: https://zoneplan.net/

Why I am keeping it alive:

remote team scheduling is evergreen
the tool has strong daily utility
time zone searches are very fragmented, which is good for long-tail SEO

4. InvoicePad

InvoicePad is a free invoice generator for freelancers.

Link: https://invoicepad.net/

Recent maintenance:

homepage title was shortened
production domain was checked again
sitemap and robots are live

Public maintenance evidence

I keep the daily evidence here:

https://github.com/Gavin1901/free-browser-tools-index/blob/master/daily/2026-07-15-strong-weak-reinforcement.md

The full tool index is here:

https://github.com/Gavin1901/free-browser-tools-index

This is not a launch post. It is a search maintenance note. The goal is simple: keep the tools crawlable, linked, and verifiable.

Four Free Browser Tools I Shipped With AI in 2026

Gavin Builds — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:06:52 +0000

I have been building small free browser tools with AI-assisted coding. The goal is simple: ship tools that solve one focused problem, run fast, and do not require sign-up.

Here are four tools from this week that are useful for different everyday workflows.

1. Free TDEE and calorie calculator

Freetdee helps estimate daily calories, BMR, and macros for weight loss, maintenance, or muscle gain.

Tool: https://freetdee.com/

2. Free invoice generator

InvoicePad is a simple browser-based invoice generator for freelancers and small operators. It is designed for quick PDF invoice creation without a login flow.

Tool: https://invoicepad.net/

3. Baby growth percentile calculator

BabyPercent helps parents understand baby weight, height, and head circumference percentiles in plain English. It is educational only, not medical advice.

Tool: https://babypercent.com/

4. Apple iWork file viewer

iWorkViewer helps open Pages, Numbers, and Keynote files online when you are on Windows or another device without Apple apps installed.

Tool: https://iworkviewer.com/

Why I keep these tools small

Small tools are easier to maintain, easier to search for, and easier to explain. Each one should do one job well before adding extra features.

I am keeping a public index of the tools and crawl notes here:

https://github.com/Gavin1901/free-browser-tools-index

Three Small Planning Tools: Time Zones, Calories and Puppy Vaccines

Gavin Builds — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 03:40:51 +0000

I like tiny tools that focus on a single planning problem. This batch covers three very different situations.

ZonePlan

Remote teams need fast time zone answers. ZonePlan helps compare global cities and find meeting overlap windows.

https://zoneplan.net/

FreeTDEE

People tracking weight or fitness goals often need a quick estimate for TDEE, BMR and macro targets. FreeTDEE does that in a simple browser page.

https://freetdee.com/

PupVax

New dog owners need a clear vaccine schedule. PupVax helps generate a puppy vaccine timeline and reminders.

https://pupvax.com/

These tools are not trying to be huge platforms. They are small utilities for specific search-intent problems.

Building a Free HEIC Converter and Invoice Generator as Browser-First Tools

Gavin Builds — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 09:19:33 +0000

Two common daily problems are still annoying in 2026: opening iPhone photo formats outside the Apple ecosystem, and creating a clean invoice without registering for another SaaS product.

I built two small browser tools around those jobs.

LivePhotoKit

LivePhotoKit is a free HEIC and Live Photo converter. It is useful when you receive iPhone photos on Windows or Android and just need a quick browser-based way to view or convert them.

https://livephotokit.com/

InvoicePad

InvoicePad is a free invoice generator for freelancers. It focuses on a simple flow: fill in details, generate an invoice and export it.

https://invoicepad.net/

Both tools are intentionally lightweight. No account, no heavy dashboard, no upload-first workflow.

Five Free Browser Tools for Photos, Invoices, Time Zones, Fitness and Puppies

Gavin Builds — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 09:19:18 +0000

I have been building small browser-first tools that solve one focused problem without sign-up walls.

Here are five free utilities from this batch.

LivePhotoKit

LivePhotoKit helps iPhone users convert HEIC photos and work with Live Photo files directly in the browser.

https://livephotokit.com/

InvoicePad

InvoicePad is a free invoice generator for freelancers and small teams. It works in the browser and helps create a clean invoice quickly.

https://invoicepad.net/

ZonePlan

ZonePlan is a time zone meeting planner for remote teams. Compare cities, check overlaps and avoid daylight saving confusion.

https://zoneplan.net/

FreeTDEE

FreeTDEE is a simple TDEE, BMR and macro calculator for fitness and weight tracking.

https://freetdee.com/

PupVax

PupVax helps new dog owners build a puppy vaccine schedule and understand the timing of key vet visits.

https://pupvax.com/

The goal is simple: open the page, solve the job, leave. No login required.