I launched PTO Calculator Hub on June 4, 2026. Within 10 days, it hit 750+ daily impressions on Google with zero paid promotion and zero backlinks.
Here's what I built, the tech stack, and the SEO decisions that made it work.
The Stack:
Astro 6 (static site generation)
React (interactive calculators)
Tailwind CSS 4
Deployed on shared hosting (no Vercel/Netlify)
What it does:
10 free calculators for US employees:
PTO Calculator
PTO Accrual Calculator
PTO Hours to Days Calculator (the breakout hit)
PTO Payout Calculator
Vacation Days Calculator
Holiday Pay Calculator
Overtime Pay Calculator
Sick Leave Calculator
PTO Rollover Calculator
Plus reference pages (accrual rate chart, state-by-state payout laws).
Why it ranked fast:
Exact-match domain intent — ptocalculatorhub.com signals what the site is about
One page per keyword cluster — not one giant page trying to rank for everything
2,500+ words of educational content below each calculator (Google needs text to understand the page)
FAQ schema on every page — earns rich results in SERPs
WebApplication schema — tells Google "this is a tool, not just an article"
32 pages, all interlinked — every page links to every other page via nav + footer + contextual links
The breakout page:
/pto-hours-to-days-calculator/ hit position 8 with 755 impressions in the first week. Why? Because thousands of people search "how many days is 80 hours of PTO" every month, and there weren't many dedicated tools for this.
Technical SEO decisions:
// astro.config.mjs
export default defineConfig({
site: 'https://ptocalculatorhub.com',
trailingSlash: 'always', // Consistent URLs, no redirect chains
});
Static HTML (no client-side routing = instant indexing)
JSON-LD schema on every page (Calculator, FAQ, Breadcrumb, Organization)
in sitemap for freshness signals
Canonical URLs matching actual served URLs (trailing slash consistency)
What I'd do differently:
Start link building on day 1 (not day 10)
Add a few long-tail blog posts before launch for content mass
Set up Google Search Console before going live (lost 4 days of data)
Results after 10 days:
Metric Value
Total impressions 1,660+
Pages indexed 28/32
Best position 1 (for long-tail queries)
Avg. position (best page) 8.49
Clicks 5
Not viral numbers, but for a brand-new domain with zero backlinks? The trajectory is strong. Position 8 → 5 → 3 is just a matter of building a few quality links now.
If you want to check it out: ptocalculatorhub.com
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