This Monday marks the soft launch of my fourth tool under the StartumProject umbrella: Forgotten Atlas
A user-friendly, SEO-optimised directory designed to help people explore abandoned, haunted, and historical landmarks across the UK. In this post, I’m sharing the full journey — how long it took, the core tools and technologies I used, and the challenges and small wins along the way.
Keyword Research
This project came out of the third Build The Keyword Challenge, and the core phrase I was working with was: “abandoned places near me.” It’s a high-interest term that attracts explorers, photographers, urban adventurers, and even ghost-hunting enthusiasts. The goal was to build something SEO-friendly, scalable, fast, and easy to use — both for users and for me as a content manager. I also wanted the site to be visually engaging while staying lightweight.
Planning & Timeframe
From the initial concept to polishing for launch, the site took just under two weeks to build. That was only possible because of good planning, modular tools, and repeatable systems that made each step more efficient. This is part of a larger personal challenge I’ve set for 2025 — to release 12 micro SaaS or web-based tools, with the aim of at least half of them generating revenue.
This project in particular helped me refine a directory template that I’ll now reuse for other ideas. The time investment wasn’t massive, but the returns in terms of process improvements and learning were significant.
Core Tech Stack
Here’s what powered the build:
WordPress
I used WordPress for its flexibility and mature plugin ecosystem. I paired it with a lightweight theme to maximise performance.
Key Plugins
JetEngine – For custom post types (listings), maps, filters, and dynamic fields
JetElements – Extra layout and content widgets
Rank Math SEO – For metadata control and keyword optimisation (especially for abandoned places near me)
WP All Import Pro – For importing batches of directory listings
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) – For structured listing data: categories, coordinates, use cases, etc.
Insert Headers and Footers by WPCode (link) – For running custom PHP securely
Elementor Pro – For page design, with performance-focused choices
I also added custom PHP snippets to enhance functionality — notably one that assigns a “use case” (like photography, film location, or ghost tours) based on category data.
Where the Data Came From
For the listings, I used Outscraper, a handy tool that lets you extract business data from Google Maps. I used the free tier for the initial data set.
Other helpful tools:
ChatGPT – For snippet generation, prompt testing, and copy assistance
Semrush – To validate the SEO opportunity and keyword focus
Data Import + Automation
After exporting a list from Outscraper, I imported it into Google Sheets to check for duplicates and polish the data before bringing it into the site.
I used WP All Import Pro to handle the CSV uploads. Post-import, I needed each listing to be enriched with a “use case” based on its category. Instead of doing this manually, I created a PHP function that checks taxonomy terms and assigns relevant use cases.
To streamline this, I hooked the function into a secure custom URL trigger using WPCode. That means every time I do an import, I can simply visit a URL and the post-processing runs automatically behind the scenes. This was a major workflow win.
SEO Structure
The whole site is built around the keyword “abandoned places near me,” so we optimised accordingly using Rank Math SEO. Every listing gets:
A title and meta description injected during import
A featured image with alt text based on category
A Google Maps embed
Clean, crawlable URL structure
We also rely on WordPress’s default search for speed and better indexing — no bloated AJAX or JavaScript overlays.
In addition, the site was submitted to Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and IndexNow. Analytics is handled through Google Analytics.
UX & Frontend
I wanted to keep things simple and user-focused:
Pages load fast — map views were moved off the homepage to reduce load time
Mobile-first design was prioritised from the start
Filters are intuitive (by city and category)
Submission forms are clean and consistent with the site’s design
Challenges & Debugging
A few bumps cropped up along the way, as expected:
Rank Math Meta Not Importing: The field keys were being misread on import. Double-checking the meta key format and ensuring compatibility with ACF resolved it.
Shortcode Misuse: Initially, I tried to use a shortcode inside an ACF field to call the use-case function — but that didn’t work as expected. I pivoted to post-processing via PHP instead.
PHP Warnings: A deprecated strtotime() call in the WP All Import Excel reader plugin caused warnings during import. It doesn’t break functionality but will eventually need patching.
What Comes Next
Forgotten Atlas is launching with hundreds of listings and a framework built to scale. Looking ahead, I’m planning:
User accounts to save favourite locations
Community Forum
Subreddit Forum
More refined tags (e.g. “haunted,” “urban decay,” “historic”)
Auto-generated city archive pages based on search interest and user behaviour
The aim is for it to become the go-to platform for anyone searching for abandoned places — whether they’re urban explorers, photographers, ghost hunters, or simply curious wanderers.
This is tool #4. More are on the way.
Explore the site: https://forgottenatlas.com
Thanks for reading — let me know what you think, or if you’re curious about building something like this yourself!
