Slashit went from zero organic traffic to 7,300 Google visitors a month with 12 articles — led by a “Raycast alternatives” page
- 7,300
- Google visitors in 30 days
- 12
- Articles published
- $0
- Budget
- 4 months
- Duration
In April, Mahmudul Hasan's Slashit had zero organic traffic. By July it pulled 7.3K visitors in 30 days, all from Google, from 12 articles — with no ads, backlinks or outreach. The biggest page targeted a competitor's name plus the exact use case where Slashit wins.
01The problem
A new SaaS nobody was searching for, on a new domain with no authority.
02The hypothesis
Instead of creating demand, borrow it: rank for people already searching for a well-known competitor's alternatives.
03The experiment
He wrote 12 articles, one at a time, and linked them to each other. The best performer: “Best Raycast Alternatives for Text Snippets & Fast Typing”.
His formula: [big competitor] + alternatives + [the specific use case where you already win]. A plain “Raycast alternatives” page would have fought review sites with far stronger backlinks; the narrow version was winnable and brought people ready to switch. He says where the competitor is better, honestly.
April was flat. In May impressions started climbing in Search Console while clicks didn't. In June pages found their positions. July: 7.3K visitors in 30 days. He built no backlinks, did no outreach and bought nothing.
04Results
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Google visitors in 30 daysJuly 2026, stated as “7.3K”; zero in April | 7,300 |
| Articles published | 12 |
| Revenue from the traffiche chose not to share it | Not disclosed |
| Spend | $0 |
“Not disclosed” means the source doesn't say. We never estimate or fill in missing numbers.
05What worked — and what didn't
What worked
- Competitor-name + use-case articles that match high buying intent.
- Being honest about where the competitor is better.
- Linking the 12 articles to each other.
- Targeting keywords with a few hundred searches a month — they converted best.
What didn't work
- Early articles about the product itself (“Introducing our dashboard”, “What is [category]”) got nothing.
- The first month showed no traffic at all.
06Lessons
Plan for about 90 days from publishing to real traffic, and watch impressions before clicks. He didn't publish revenue from the traffic, but says alternatives pages convert well enough to make content his main channel.
“Twelve articles. Four months. 7,300 visitors a month, compounding, that I will never have to pay for again.”
07Source & evidence
- View original
Originally shared on Indie Hackers · Jul 27, 2026
How I ranked Slashit App with my biggest competitor's name and made it my best traffic source
Public source. Extracted from publicly available content by the founder.
Want to try this?
Copy this experiment
A checklist built from what Mahmudul Hasan actually did. Their numbers are a reference, not a promise.
- 1
Pick the channel and tactic
SEO — “[Competitor] alternatives for [your use case]” articles.
- 2
Set a budget cap
Mahmudul Hasan spent $0. Decide your own cap before you start.
- 3
Set an end date
Mahmudul Hasan ran it for 4 months. Put your review date in the calendar now.
- 4
Copy what worked
From Mahmudul Hasan's experience:
- ☐Competitor-name + use-case articles that match high buying intent.
- ☐Being honest about where the competitor is better.
- ☐Linking the 12 articles to each other.
- ☐Targeting keywords with a few hundred searches a month — they converted best.
- 5
Avoid what didn't
Where it went wrong:
- ☐Early articles about the product itself (“Introducing our dashboard”, “What is [category]”) got nothing.
- ☐The first month showed no traffic at all.
- 6
Track the same numbers
So you can compare like for like:
- ☐Google visitors in 30 days
- ☐Articles published
- ☐Revenue from the traffic
- 7
Compare, then share what happened
Mahmudul Hasan's headline result: 7,300 google visitors in 30 days. Yours will differ — that's the point. Win or flop, the result is worth sharing.
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Mahmudul Hasan hasn't published a step-by-step playbook. If enough readers ask, we'll ask Mahmudul Hasan for one.
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