YSM Digital
projects4 case studies

Work that had to work.

Tools built because the manual version kept failing, and sites built because the brief needed a technical foundation rather than a template. Each one is described with what it does and what changed, not adjectives.

case 01internal tool

Redirect Forge

Migrations produce hundreds or thousands of redirects, and the failure mode is quiet: chains, loops, and old URLs that quietly 404 after launch. Redirect Forge builds the map and refuses to ship one that doesn't validate.

type
bulk 301 redirect tool
stack
Python, pandas
used for
domain moves, URL restructures, platform migrations
status
in use on client work
old inventorynew inventory /services/physio-joburg/blog/2019/03/post-title/product.php?id=4812/about-us.html/contact-us//old-category/item /physiotherapy/joburg/insights/post-title/products/item-4812/about/contact chain, 2 hops: collapsed
map validated: 6 rules, 1 chain collapsed, 0 loops, 0 dead targetsfig. 01

What it does

Redirect Forge takes the old URL inventory (a crawl, log export or CMS dump) and the new one, and produces the one-to-one map with the rules to implement it. Every target is checked for its live status before the map is accepted, chains are collapsed to a single hop, loops are refused, and the output is written for the environment that will serve it, whether that is an .htaccess file on shared hosting, an Nginx block or an edge rule.

Why it exists

Spreadsheets do the first 80 percent of a redirect map and none of the checking. The last 20 percent is where rankings are lost: a category that maps to a page that itself redirects, a parameterised URL nobody listed, a target that returns 404 on the staging server but nobody tested on production. The tool makes the checking the default rather than the afterthought.

outcome

Redirect maps for migrations are now generated and validated in minutes instead of assembled by hand, with chains, loops and dead targets caught before launch rather than discovered in the logs afterwards.

case 02tooling and method

Audit pipeline

Audit work is repetitive in the parts that shouldn't need a person and subtle in the parts that do. The pipeline collects and normalises; the specialist judges. The output is a branded report a client can act on in order.

components
SEO Score Scraper, PDF-to-CSV converter, audit method
stack
Python, pandas, Claude skill
output
branded PDF report, prioritised by impact and effort
used on
e-commerce and service-business audits
$ audit run practice-site.co.za crawlablerobots ok2003 redirect chains crawledgooglebot 1,204 hits / 7drdns verified indexed412 / 438 canonical9 noindex leaks rankablelcp 3.1s p75cls 0.02inp 210ms chosentitle rewrites 14%ai overview: absent priority 1fix noindex leak on service template (9 urls) priority 2collapse 3 chains, then hero lcp on 2 templates
illustrative readout: five layers, worked top downfig. 02

The method, made repeatable

Five questions, answered in order and never skipped: can it be crawled, is it being crawled, is it indexed, can it rank, is it being chosen. Each layer is ruled out with its own evidence before the next is opened, which is what stops an audit recommending new content for a site whose real problem is a header sending noindex on every service page.

The tools around it

The SEO Score Scraper pulls page-level scores and signals at scale so the first pass is data rather than clicking. The PDF-to-CSV converter turns the reports clients already have (previous audits, agency decks, platform exports) into tables that can be diffed against the current state. The method itself is codified as a reusable skill, so every audit runs the same checks in the same order and the report is generated in the studio's template with the evidence attached to each finding.

outcome

Audits are delivered as branded PDF reports with findings ranked by impact and effort, each one traceable to a log line, a crawl row or a field-data point. Time goes to judgement, not collection.

case 03brand, build and seo

Grow My Practice

A client-facing brand for South African healthcare practices, built from nothing: domain, identity, copy, a twelve-page static site with its full SEO infrastructure, and a content programme. It reached position two nationally for its target terms within days of launch.

site
growmypractice.co.za
launched
July 2026
hosting
static HTML on shared hosting
identity
teal, leaf green, amber; Familjen Grotesk and Instrument Sans
audience
physiotherapists, dentists, chiropractors, GPs, allied health
position, target termsdays after launch 12510>20 03714 #2 national
endpoint is real; the curve is illustrative, not sampled dailyfig. 03

What was built

The brand started at domain selection and ran through a visual identity, homepage and service-page copy, and a twelve-page static site with the infrastructure that usually gets bolted on afterwards: clean URL structure, canonical and sitemap logic, JSON-LD for the organisation and services, self-hosted assets, and hosting-level caching. A full content strategy and a twelve-week calendar followed, along with a physiotherapy SEO service page, social carousels and a branded retainer agreement.

Why it ranked quickly

There was no technical debt to work around. Every page was crawlable and indexable on day one, the internal linking was shallow, the templates were fast on mobile, and the entity was declared consistently across the site and its Business Profile. Content strategy matters, but it lands on a site that lets it.

outcome

Position 2 nationally for the target terms within days of launch, on a site with no prior domain history, no paid promotion and no link building. The brand now serves as the studio's client-facing surface for South African practices.

case 04design and build

datascimarketing.com

The technical SEO practice needed its own identity, distinct from the studio, and a homepage that explains one offer clearly to one audience: design-led agencies with high project values and a technical SEO gap.

site
datascimarketing.com
scope
homepage v2, visual identity, offer architecture
offer
fixed-scope technical audits, ongoing technical support, white-label delivery
audience
agencies in the UK, US and Australia, typically 10 to 49 staff
homepage architecture home fixed-scope audittechnical supportwhite-label scoping call one audience, one offer, one action. No blog, no services sprawl.
the page argues one thing: capability gap and ability to pay are inversely correlatedfig. 04

The rebuild

Version two replaced a general-purpose homepage with a single argument aimed at agencies: they win projects on design and lose retention on technical SEO, and a specialist under their brand closes the gap without adding headcount. The identity was set deliberately apart from YSM Digital so the two properties read as related but not interchangeable, and the page was built as static HTML with the same performance discipline as this site.

Offer architecture

Three products, one entry point. A fixed-scope technical audit, an ongoing technical support retainer, and both available white-label with no contact with the agency's clients. The prospecting behind it screens agencies on project value and hourly rate, with US firms kept eligible and flagged for timezone fit rather than excluded.

outcome

A homepage that can be sent cold to an agency principal and understood in a minute: who it's for, what it costs, and what the next step is. It is now the landing point for the studio's white-label subcontracting campaign.

Something similar, on your site?

Every project above started as a short message describing what was wrong. Send yours.