Building 175+ browser-only tools was the straightforward part for PlainToolbox developer Ajay Kanani. Getting their pages into Google Search was not: in an article published September 30, 2026, he reported that Google had dropped nearly all of the tool pages it had briefly indexed. His account is a useful case study in the gap between making a working utility and earning search visibility—not proof that any one technical or content tactic determines indexing.
How PlainToolbox’s tools were built
Kanani describes PlainToolbox as a collection of more than 175 free calculators, converters, text utilities and generators. He says the tools run in the browser, without a backend or signup. The 175+ count is his description of his own project, not an independently verified industry statistic.
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One configuration feeds several parts of each tool
In Kanani’s account, each tool is defined by a configuration object containing its inputs, logic and FAQs. A shared engine uses that definition to produce the page, JSON-LD schema, sitemap and llms.txt. He also says the server-rendered page includes a default example result, so visitors and crawlers see a worked answer rather than only an empty form. The implementation has not been independently inspected, and the account does not establish that this rendering approach improved indexing.
Tool logic was designed to be testable
Kanani says the tools’ calculations were implemented as pure functions and tested against expected outputs, including for business-day calculations. That describes a software-quality approach: it can help check whether a tool returns the intended result, but it does not by itself demonstrate that a page offers enough distinct value to earn search visibility.
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What happened in Google Search
Kanani reports that Google briefly indexed several tool pages and later dropped nearly all of them. At the time of his September 30, 2026 article, he said the homepage was the only indexed page and that Search Console showed most tool pages as “Crawled, currently not indexed.” These are his site-specific observations; the underlying Search Console records and an independent crawl are not available to confirm them.
Google’s people-first content guidance says its systems aim to prioritize helpful, reliable information created to benefit people. Its self-assessment prompts ask whether content provides original information or analysis, substantial value, first-hand expertise and usefulness for an intended audience. Google also recognizes interactive features such as calculators as possible main content. This is relevant context for utility pages, but it does not explain why Google did or did not index PlainToolbox’s particular URLs.
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What Kanani changed—and what the account can establish
Kanani describes several changes to the site. He noindexed commodity utilities such as a generic RGB-to-HEX converter, added concise “Quick answers” phrased around queries, displayed a “Last reviewed” date only on pages actually reviewed, split the sitemap by section and added a tool for a query he says he found in search data.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11These are reported decisions and rationales, not a controlled test. The article gives no quantified before-and-after result for each change, so it cannot establish that any one of them improved indexing.
Commodity utility or a page with distinct value?
Kanani’s decision to noindex a generic converter reflects a distinction between offering a familiar function and giving a page a reason to stand apart. Google’s guidance makes originality and usefulness relevant questions to ask, but neither that guidance nor this case study proves that a particular type of converter will be indexed or excluded.
Empty form or useful example?
A rendered worked example can show a visitor how an input relates to an output before they use the form. Kanani says PlainToolbox included one in the server-rendered page; the account does not demonstrate that it changed how Google handled those pages. The current Next.js App Router caching guide documents framework behavior, not the search outcome of this specific architecture.
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More pages or more reasons to be cited?
Kanani’s summary is: “Technical SEO makes you eligible, but it does not make you rank.” He says backlinks and real mentions mattered more to his project than adding another hundred pages, while acknowledging that the project was still early in that effort. This is his assessment, not a Google statement or a measured comparison of page counts and links.
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Review dates should reflect actual review
Showing a “Last reviewed” date only when a page had truly been reviewed avoids implying an editorial check that did not happen. Kanani reports making that change, but does not supply evidence that it altered indexing.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Technical eligibility is not an indexing diagnosis
Google’s crawler overview says Google uses multiple types of crawlers and fetchers and distributes crawler infrastructure across datacenters. It also notes that Googlebot can crawl over HTTP/2, while HTTP/2 itself does not provide a Google Search ranking boost. Nothing in Kanani’s account identifies a protocol choice as the cause of his indexing outcome.
More broadly, a sitemap, server-rendered content or a technically sound tool can make a site easier to crawl or understand, but this case study does not show that any of those elements guarantees indexing. Nor does it identify a single reason Google left most of the reported tool pages out of the index.
What the case study says about traffic beyond Search
Kanani says his first traceable visits came from an AI assistant. He provides neither a traffic count nor an attribution method, so this is an observation about his project—not evidence of a broader AI-referral trend.
His account is most useful as a reminder to separate building a reliable tool from giving its page a distinct, useful purpose. It documents one developer’s architecture, indexing experience and experiments; it does not turn those choices into a recipe for guaranteed search visibility.
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