SEO Playground — Local SEO Dashboard

Work in progress — new DataForSEO endpoints are being added progressively.

SEO Playground is a self-hosted dashboard that lets you run SEO and local SEO queries directly against the DataForSEO API. Every search is saved locally in a SQLite database, so you can browse your history and revisit results without making additional API calls. There is no cloud infrastructure involved — everything runs on your machine.

If you find this useful, consider supporting the project:

Screenshots

Local Finder: grid search showing local rankings across a geographic area

Rank Tracker: monitor keyword positions over time for any domain

Google Reviews: rating distribution, monthly review chart, and rating goal calculator

Features

• Rank Tracker — Track keyword positions over time for any domain
• SERP Checker — Analyze Google organic results with target domain highlighting
• Ranked Keywords — Discover what keywords a domain ranks for
• Keyword Overview — Metrics (volume, CPC, competition) for a list of keywords
• Keyword Data — Google Ads & Bing keyword research
• Keyword Difficulty — Bulk difficulty scores via DataForSEO Labs
• Keyword Ideas — Keyword ideas from a seed with volume, difficulty and intent
• Search Intent — Classify keywords by search intent (informational, navigational, commercial, transactional)
• Related Keywords — Related keyword suggestions from a seed keyword
• Competitors — Find competing domains in the SERPs
• Domain Intersection — Common keywords between two domains
• Historical Rank — Ranking history overview for a domain
• Domain Categories — Thematic categories for any domain
• Subdomains — Top subdomains by organic traffic
• Traffic Estimation — Bulk organic traffic estimate for a list of domains
• Page Intersection (Labs) — Keywords shared between multiple pages
• Backlinks — Full backlink profile: list, referring domains, anchors, referring networks, history
• Backlinks Page Intersection — Pages linking to multiple of your targets simultaneously
• Backlinks Domain Intersection — Domains linking to you and a competitor
• Bulk Backlinks / Bulk Referring Domains — Aggregated backlink metrics for a domain list
• Local Finder — Google local pack results for any keyword and location, with map-based coordinate picker
• Geo-Grid Ranking — Local visibility heatmap across a configurable grid of points (3×3 to 11×11). Choose between three API modes: Live (~6 s, instant results), Priority (~1 min, 40% cheaper) or Standard (background queue, 70% cheaper). Results are color-coded by rank position and saved locally for later review.
• On-Page Site Audit — Full site crawl with pages, links, resources, duplicate tags and non-indexable pages
• On-Page Instant Pages — Instant single-page audit without crawling
• Microdata Analysis — Structured data inspection for any crawled URL
• Content Parsing — Quality score, readability (ARI), word count, meta tags, content blocks
• Google Reviews — Fetch and analyze Google Business reviews: rating distribution, monthly chart, and rating goal calculator
• AI Optimization — Visibility in AI-generated answers
• Reddit Mentions — Discover Reddit threads linking to or discussing your URLs
• Top Searches — Local search trends
• Settings — Store your DataForSEO credentials and defaults locally

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• A DataForSEO account (API key)

Getting Started

Option 1 — Docker (recommended)

The easiest and fastest way to run the app. Docker builds a production image so the app is fully optimized.

# Build and start (first run)
docker compose up --build

# Subsequent runs
docker compose up

The database is persisted in ./data/seo-playground.db on your machine.

Option 2 — Node.js (production mode)

Faster than dev mode — build once, then run.

npm install
npm run build
npm start

Option 3 — Node.js (dev mode)

Convenient for development but noticeably slower — Next.js recompiles on every request and skips all optimizations. Not recommended for daily use.

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 and go to Settings to enter your DataForSEO API credentials.

Configuration

All settings (API credentials, default location, language, coordinates, domain) are stored locally in seo-playground.db (SQLite). No .env file is needed — configure everything from the Settings page.

Data Storage

Search history and results are cached locally in seo-playground.db. The database is created automatically on first run.

Tech Stack

• Next.js 15 — App Router, Server Actions
• React 19
• Tailwind CSS v4
• better-sqlite3 — local SQLite storage
• Leaflet — maps
• Lucide React — icons

Changelog

2026-06-01

• Local Finder simplified — grid search removed from Local Finder and now lives exclusively in its own dedicated Geo-Grid Ranking page
• Geo-Grid highlighted — three queue modes (Live / Priority / Standard), grid sizes from 3×3 to 11×11, color-coded heatmap, auto-polling, local history
• README: run options clarified — Docker and npm run build && npm start recommended over npm run dev; dev mode noted as slow by design (no optimization, recompiles on every request)
• Next.js dev indicator removed — devIndicators: false

2026-05-31

• Fix Labs API field mappings — corrected response parsing for Keyword Ideas (keyword_properties.keyword_difficulty, flat structure with no keyword_data wrapper), Search Intent (keyword_intent.label and secondary_keyword_intents array), Subdomains (removed unsupported order_by parameter), and Traffic Estimation (removed non-existent position columns, added Paid KWs column)
• Fix Keyword Ideas request — endpoint requires keywords as an array, not a single keyword string
• Remove Next.js dev indicator — devIndicators: false in next.config.ts
• Update banner translated to English
• Keyword Difficulty — fixed remaining French strings

2026-05-30

• Labs endpoints — added Keyword Ideas, Search Intent, Page Intersection, Subdomains, Traffic Estimation
• Domain Analytics — added Categories page
• OnPage — added Site Audit tabs: Links, Resources, Duplicate Tags, Non-Indexable; added Content Parsing standalone page
• Backlinks — added Referring Networks, Page Intersection, Domain Intersection, History (with sparkline charts), Bulk Backlinks, Bulk Referring Domains
• Fix microdata field.value.join is not a function — DataForSEO returns value and types as strings in some responses; added Array.isArray() guards
• Fix microdata "page not submitted" — URL mismatch due to redirect normalization; fetch actual crawled URL from on_page/pages first
• Docker support — added Dockerfile, .dockerignore, and docker-compose.yml with persistent SQLite volume
• Auto-refresh — Site Audit page polls automatically while a crawl is in progress
• UI redesign — sidebar overhaul (blue active state, readable nav labels, section grouping), header cleanup, smooth scroll, focus rings
• All UI text translated to English

Earlier

• Google Reviews — async task flow, rating distribution, monthly chart, rating goal calculator
• On-Page Instant Pages — full single-page audit via DataForSEO live endpoint
• Geo-Grid Ranking — heatmap across a geographic grid, async task polling
• Site Audit fixes — resolved INSERT OR REPLACE data wipe bug and invalid order_by parameter causing crawls to never complete
• Initial release — Rank Tracker, SERP Checker, Ranked Keywords, Keyword Overview, Keyword Data, Keyword Difficulty, Related Keywords, Competitors, Domain Intersection, Historical Rank, Backlinks, Local Finder, On-Page, AI Optimization, Reddit, Top Searches

License

MIT