About

I'm James Houlder, an SEO consultant who works with founders and startups to build sustainable organic growth.

This journal is where I think in public about SEO, founder marketing, and what it takes to build traffic that actually converts. It's a mix of:

• Thinking - ideas I'm exploring, observations about search
• Testing - experiments I'm running, what I'm measuring
• Learned - lessons from client work, things that clicked

I've been doing SEO since 2015, working with startups from pre-seed through Series B. I focus on the fundamentals that compound: technical foundations, content that answers real questions, and systems that scale with limited resources.

What I believe

• SEO is a compounding investment, not a quick win
• Technical excellence creates headroom for everything else
• Content should answer real questions, not target keywords
• The best SEO strategy fits how you actually work
• Measurement matters, but don't optimize for metrics you don't understand

This site

Built with Flask, styled with Tailwind, hosted simply. No trackers, no cookies (except session). Performance-first, because that matters.

The "playable journal" format is inspired by working notes and dev logs - thoughts numbered, timestamped, and tagged. You can react, reply via email, or just read.

Founder Fridays

Each Friday I send a short email with one useful thought about SEO or startup growth. No fluff, no promotions - just one idea worth considering.