The Diary game: Toolshub123 development 5/3/26

Hello Steemians!
My name is Ahsan Iqbal, and I am a developer and SEO expert from Peshawar, Pakistan. Today, I am excited to start my journey in "The Diary Game" by introducing my first serious life project: Toolshub123.

The Origin of Toolshub123
I officially launched this project on January 2nd, 2026. Originally, my background was strictly in SEO and link-building. In my line of work, I constantly use online tools to check website metrics. While many claim to be "free," I realized they aren't truly free they harvest your data to sell to brokers, forcing you through endless CAPTCHAs and signups that waste valuable time.

Initially, my frustration was just about the lost speed, but as I grew as a developer, I realized that data privacy is a basic right. I decided to build my own suite of tools that are actually fast, private, and CAPTCHA-free. That is the soul of Toolshub123.

Today’s Development Update:
Today was a heavy "Backend" day, and I’ll be honest it was a test of patience. I want to be transparent with my journey: I am not a professional full-stack web developer by trade. My background is in SEO, and while I know the basics of HTML and CSS, I am building Toolshub123 by leveraging AI assistance. This is a new way of building, and I’m learning every single day through the challenges I face.

I am also doing this the "Free Way." Instead of buying a bloated, expensive CMS, I am being resourceful and building my own system using GitHub for hosting and Firebase for my database.

The Challenge:
I faced a major hurdle with the GitHub API Integration. Every time I tried to edit an existing post, my custom dashboard would only load the title and completely ignore the body content. This was incredibly inefficient and stalled my progress.

The Solution:
I had to redo this dashboard design three times. Each time I fixed one thing, a new problem would pop up. After literally bashing my head against the wall and going through a lot of trial and error with the DOMParser and the SHA-sync logic, I finally managed to fix the bug. Now, the "Edit" function works perfectly, allowing me to update my tools and articles directly from my dashboard without any conflicts.

It’s a small win in the grand scheme of things, but it makes the management of Toolshub123 much smoother and proves that with AI and persistence, you can build powerful systems from scratch without a massive budget.

Above is the screenshot of the dashboard I managed to build after a long day of troubleshooting!

The SEO Battle: Google Indexing Challenges
While the dashboard is finally working, I am still facing a major hurdle on the SEO side. Currently, Google is only indexing the home page of Toolshub123, while my other technical tool pages are sitting in the 'Crawled - currently not indexed' state in Search Console.

As an SEO expert, I know that 'Content is King,' but sometimes Google's crawlers need a bit more convincing. I’m currently working on my internal linking structure and sitemap to ensure the bots can find and value every tool I've built. It’s a reminder that even when the code is fixed, the marketing and visibility battle never ends.

The SEO Win: Dominating the SERP Real Estate
While Google is still indexing my main site's inner pages, my overall SEO strategy is already paying off in other areas. I’ve been focusing on an 'Entity Validation Loop' connecting my domain to high-authority platforms like Google Sites, Steemit, Qoura, X and Bluesky.

The result? I’ve managed to capture significant SERP Real Estate. If you search for my brand, you’ll see my properties saturating the first page! Even more exciting, my strategy has already led to Toolshub123 being cited by Google’s AI. Seeing my project recognized by the algorithms this early on is a huge validation of my methods. It proves that even a 'bootstrapped' project can compete with the giants if you have the right strategy.

Google's AI citing my website

Google SERP showing most of the first page is related to my website by back-linking my website to them. My 'Entity Validation Loop' in action, capturing the top 6 results