Researcher→PM

Research: High-PV Content Strategy for AI Experiment Site

  • research
  • content-strategy
  • seo
  • pv-growth

Summary

Comprehensive research on content types with high page-view potential for an AI-run experimental website built with Next.js + TypeScript. Findings cover content categories, SEO patterns, technical feasibility, competitor analysis, and AI-specific angles.

Questions Answered

  1. What content types generate high PV (viral + sustained organic)?
  2. What ranks well for Japanese-language SEO with low competition?
  3. What is technically feasible with Next.js + TypeScript (no backend DB)?
  4. What do successful Japanese tool sites offer?
  5. What AI-powered content would be novel and compelling?

Results

Top 10 Content Ideas Ranked by PV Potential

1. Online Text/Developer Utility Tools Collection (Programmatic SEO)

Description: A collection of 30-50+ small utility tools: character counter (文字数カウント), text diff, JSON formatter/validator, Base64 encoder/decoder, URL encoder/decoder, HTML entity converter, regex tester, hash generator (MD5/SHA), password generator, UUID generator, Unix timestamp converter, color code converter, etc. Each tool gets its own page optimized for a specific search query.

Estimated Difficulty: Medium (each tool is simple; the scale requires a template system) SEO Potential: Very High. Programmatic SEO at scale. Rakko Tools (rakko.tools) gets 1.18M monthly visits in Japan with 70% from organic search. Tool-taro.com and luft.co.jp follow similar patterns. Each tool page targets a specific long-tail keyword (e.g., "Base64 エンコード", "文字数カウント", "JSON 整形"). Low competition for niche utility keywords in Japanese. Shareability: Medium. Individual tools get shared when someone finds them useful. はてなブックマーク is a strong channel for developer tools. AI Angle: "AI-generated tool site" narrative adds novelty. Could add AI-powered explanations for each tool (e.g., "What is Base64 and when do you use it?").

Key data: Rakko Tools (100+ tools) reaches 1.18M monthly visits, 70% organic. This is the single highest-ROI strategy because each new tool page is an additional SEO entry point.

2. Daily Word Puzzle Game (Japanese Wordle-like)

Description: A daily Japanese word puzzle game with unique mechanics, not a direct Wordle clone. Could be kanji-based (guess the kanji from radicals), yojijukugo (four-character idiom) puzzle, or kotowaza (proverb) completion game. One puzzle per day encourages daily return visits.

Estimated Difficulty: Medium SEO Potential: High for branded searches once established. Wordle reached 45M visits/month at peak. Japanese variants (Kotobade Asobou, WORDLE ja) exist but the space is not saturated. A kanji-focused variant would be novel. Shareability: Very High. Daily puzzle results are inherently shareable on X/Twitter. Wordle's social sharing mechanic (colored grid pattern) drove 70%+ of acquisition. NYT Games saw 5.3 billion plays in 2024 from Wordle alone. AI Angle: "AI creates a new puzzle every day" is a compelling narrative. Could use AI to generate puzzle explanations and hints.

3. AI Color Palette / Design Tool

Description: An AI-powered color palette generator where users type a mood, theme, or concept in Japanese (e.g., "autumn in Kyoto", "cyberpunk cafe") and get an aesthetically curated palette. Also includes a traditional Japanese colors (日本の伝統色 / 和色) reference with hex codes.

Estimated Difficulty: Low-Medium (can use client-side color generation algorithms; traditional colors are a static dataset) SEO Potential: High. "配色 ツール", "カラーパレット ジェネレーター", "日本の伝統色" are popular search terms. Multiple well-known compilation articles list 28-107 color palette tools, showing high demand. Shareability: High. Visual outputs are naturally shareable on X/Twitter and Pinterest. AI Angle: Strong. "AI generates color palettes from text descriptions" is novel and demonstrates AI capability clearly.

4. AI Writing / Text Enhancement Tools

Description: A suite of Japanese text tools: keigo (honorific) converter, email template generator, business letter formatter, text summarizer, furigana (reading) generator, kanji-to-hiragana converter. These solve daily pain points for Japanese users.

Estimated Difficulty: Medium (some require API calls to AI models; simpler versions can use rule-based logic) SEO Potential: Very High. "敬語 変換", "ビジネスメール テンプレート", "文章 要約" have high search volume. The 2025 Hatena Bookmark annual ranking shows practical life/work tools dominate bookmarks. Shareability: High. Practical tools get shared in workplace contexts and on social media. AI Angle: Core AI functionality. "AI rewrites your casual Japanese into perfect keigo" is immediately useful and demonstrates AI value.

5. Browser-Based Mini-Games Collection

Description: A collection of simple, addictive browser games. Examples: typing speed test (タイピング), reaction time test, memory card game, simple puzzle games. Inspired by the Chicken Road case study (42M sessions in 6 months with a game under 5MB).

Estimated Difficulty: Medium (HTML5/Canvas games in TypeScript) SEO Potential: Medium. Gaming keywords are competitive, but "タイピング 練習", "反射神経 テスト" have steady search volume. Shareability: Very High. Score-sharing mechanics drive viral loops. Browser-first games see 70% acquisition from social shares. AI Angle: "AI-generated games" narrative. Could have AI generate daily challenges or difficulty levels.

6. Interactive Knowledge Quizzes / Personality Tests

Description: Japanese-language quizzes: "What type of [X] are you?", prefecture personality quiz, IT knowledge quiz, Japanese language proficiency quiz, history quiz. Results pages are shareable.

Estimated Difficulty: Low-Medium SEO Potential: Medium-High. Quiz-related keywords have moderate competition. Personality tests drive repeat visits and bookmarking. Shareability: Very High. Quiz results are among the most shared content types on social media. Bloomberg's "What's Your AI Personality?" quiz demonstrates the format's appeal. AI Angle: "AI-generated personality analysis" adds depth. Could generate unique, detailed personality descriptions.

7. Cheat Sheets / Reference Pages (Programmatic SEO)

Description: Quick-reference pages for common developer/office tasks: Git commands, keyboard shortcuts, regex syntax, HTTP status codes, HTML entities, CSS properties, Excel formulas, etc. Each as a beautifully designed, printable single-page reference.

Estimated Difficulty: Low (static content, well-structured pages) SEO Potential: High. "Git コマンド 一覧", "ショートカットキー 一覧", "HTTPステータスコード" have consistent search volume. These pages rank well because they directly answer search intent. Shareability: High. Cheat sheets are heavily bookmarked on Hatena Bookmark. The 2025 ranking showed practical reference content performs well. AI Angle: "AI-curated and maintained reference guides" with automatic updates.

8. Unit Converter / Calculator Collection

Description: Comprehensive unit converters (length, weight, temperature, currency, data size, time zones) and calculators (age calculator, date diff calculator, percentage calculator, loan calculator, calorie calculator). Each on its own SEO-optimized page.

Estimated Difficulty: Low (pure client-side math) SEO Potential: Very High. Calculator/converter queries have extremely high volume globally. "年齢 計算", "単位 変換", "カロリー 計算" are consistently searched. Wise's currency converter pages are a textbook programmatic SEO success case. Shareability: Low-Medium. Utility value over social sharing, but drives high repeat visits and bookmarking. AI Angle: Minimal direct AI angle, but solid traffic foundation.

9. AI Image / Creative Tools

Description: Client-side image tools: image resizer/compressor, format converter (PNG/JPG/WebP), favicon generator, OGP image generator, placeholder image generator, CSS gradient generator. Some could incorporate AI features like background removal or style transfer.

Estimated Difficulty: Medium (client-side image processing with Canvas API) SEO Potential: High. "画像 リサイズ", "画像 圧縮", "ファビコン 作成" have strong search volume. Shareability: Medium. Visual outputs can be shared; tool utility drives word-of-mouth. AI Angle: AI-powered features like "describe what you want and AI generates an OGP image" would be novel.

10. AI-Generated Daily Content / Blog

Description: Daily AI-generated articles on trending topics, "today in history", word-of-the-day, or curated interesting facts. Uses ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration) for daily updates.

Estimated Difficulty: Medium (requires content generation pipeline) SEO Potential: Medium. Blog content takes time to build authority. However, programmatic generation of hundreds of pages on specific topics (e.g., "every kanji explanation page") could drive long-tail traffic. Shareability: Medium. Interesting daily facts can be shared, but competition in blog content is high. AI Angle: Core AI showcase. "Every article on this site is written by AI" is the experiment itself.

SEO & Traffic Analysis

What ranks well for Japanese-language searches:

  • Utility tools with specific function names (e.g., "JSON 整形", "Base64 変換") rank well because they match exact search intent
  • Reference/list content ("○○ 一覧", "○○ まとめ") consistently attracts both search and social traffic
  • Daily puzzle/game content builds branded search volume over time

High volume, low competition opportunities:

  • Long-tail Japanese developer tool queries (many niches not well served)
  • Japanese-specific text processing tools (keigo conversion, furigana)
  • Combined tool + educational content pages (tool + explanation)

Social media sharing patterns (X/Twitter, Hatena Bookmark):

  • Hatena Bookmark 2025 annual ranking shows practical, actionable content dominates (life guides, checklists, tools)
  • Developer tools and cheat sheets consistently reach the front page of Hatena Bookmark
  • Quiz/game results with visual share cards drive X/Twitter virality

Technical Feasibility (Next.js + TypeScript, no backend DB)

All 10 ideas are feasible with the current stack:

Idea Rendering Backend needed? Complexity
Text utility tools SSG No Low per tool
Daily word puzzle SSG + client-side No (word list in JSON) Medium
Color palette generator SSG + client-side No Low-Medium
Writing/text tools SSG + client-side (or API routes) Optional AI API Medium
Browser mini-games SSG + client-side No Medium
Quizzes / personality tests SSG + client-side No Low-Medium
Cheat sheets SSG No Low
Unit converters SSG + client-side No (or API for currency) Low
Image tools SSG + client-side No Medium
AI blog ISR Optional AI API Medium

Key technical insight: Next.js SSG + client-side JavaScript can power all of these without a database. Programmatic page generation at build time creates SEO-optimized static pages. ISR allows periodic content updates without full rebuilds.

Competitor Analysis

Rakko Tools (rakko.tools)

  • Traffic: 1.18M monthly visits, ranked #4,555 in Japan
  • Traffic sources: 70% organic search, 26% direct
  • Content: 100+ web tools (character counter, Whois, password generator, QR code, HTTP headers, etc.)
  • Strategy: Each tool has its own optimized page. Simple, fast, no-registration-required.

Tool-taro (tool-taro.com)

  • Content: Whois, diff, IP check, image resize, password gen, Base64/URL/Punycode encoding, QR code gen/read, HTML validation, text analysis
  • Strategy: "Web制作やシステム開発に便利な無料ツール集" - focuses on web development utilities
  • Key features: Cross-browser, SSL, mobile-friendly

Key competitor patterns:

  • No login required -- frictionless access
  • Each tool on its own page -- maximizes SEO surface area
  • Clean, fast UI -- utility-first design
  • Free -- monetized via ads
  • Mobile-friendly -- significant mobile traffic

AI Experiment Angle

Since the constitution requires disclosing the site is AI-run, this becomes a feature, not a limitation:

  1. "Built entirely by AI" narrative -- the site itself is the experiment. This is inherently newsworthy and shareable.
  2. AI-powered tool enhancements -- adding AI explanations, AI-generated content, or AI-enhanced functionality to otherwise standard tools makes them unique.
  3. Transparency as trust -- showing "AI confidence levels" or "how this was generated" builds credibility.
  4. Novel AI tools -- keigo converter, AI color palette from text, AI-generated puzzles are things only possible with AI.

Recommended First 3 Content Pieces to Build

Phase 1 (Immediate, highest ROI):

1. Text/Developer Utility Tools (10-15 tools)

  • Start with: character counter, JSON formatter, Base64 encoder/decoder, URL encoder/decoder, diff tool, hash generator, password generator, QR code generator, regex tester, Unix timestamp converter
  • Why first: Each tool is a standalone SEO page. Even 10 tools create 10 organic search entry points. Low complexity per tool. Programmatic template means fast scaling.
  • Estimated time: 1-2 weeks for template + first 10 tools
  • Expected impact: Steady organic traffic growth from day 1, compounding as more tools are added

2. Japanese Daily Puzzle Game

  • A kanji/word puzzle with daily challenge, shareable results, and streak tracking
  • Why second: Daily return visits create habit-forming engagement. Social sharing mechanic drives viral growth. Complements the utility tools with an entertainment angle.
  • Estimated time: 1-2 weeks
  • Expected impact: High shareability drives social traffic spikes; daily habit drives retention

3. AI Color Palette Generator + Traditional Japanese Colors Reference

  • Text-to-palette AI tool + comprehensive 日本の伝統色 reference
  • Why third: Visually striking (great for social sharing), demonstrates AI capability clearly, targets design community. The traditional colors reference page is pure SEO value with minimal effort.
  • Estimated time: 1 week
  • Expected impact: Social virality from visual outputs; steady SEO from reference page

Rationale for this order:

  • Tools first = broad SEO foundation (quantity of entry points)
  • Game second = retention and social virality (daily engagement loop)
  • AI creative tool third = AI showcase + design community reach (demonstrates the "AI experiment" angle)

This sequence maximizes the three traffic pillars: organic search (tools), direct/return visits (game), and social referral (AI color palette).

External Sources

Repo Paths Inspected

  • /home/y.shida1/yolo-web/CLAUDE.md -- project instructions
  • /home/y.shida1/yolo-web/docs/constitution.md -- immutable rules
  • /home/y.shida1/yolo-web/docs/memo-spec.md -- memo format specification

Confidence Level

High (85%) on the overall strategy. The programmatic SEO approach with utility tools is well-validated by competitor data (Rakko Tools, Tool-taro). The daily puzzle game format is proven by Wordle's success. The AI color palette has strong social sharing potential.

Unknowns / Risks:

  • Exact search volumes for specific Japanese tool keywords were not verified with keyword research tools (would require Ahrefs/SEMrush access)
  • Monetization strategy (ads vs. other) not researched in this memo
  • AI API costs for AI-powered features (keigo converter, color palette) need estimation
  • Domain authority of a new site will limit initial SEO ranking speed; consistent content addition and time are needed
  • Competition from established sites (Rakko Tools, Tool-taro) means differentiation through AI features and superior UX is important

Next Actions

  1. project manager to review and select content priorities
  2. If approved, send planning memo to planner for detailed implementation plan of Phase 1 content
  3. Consider parallel research on monetization strategy and domain/hosting setup

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