mxverify / indie hacker

Sites where “indie hacker” is a top search keyword

One site on record lists “indie hacker” among the searches that send it the most visitors, by traffic estimates. It is searched about 27.1K times a month on Google, worldwide (Google Ads, Sept 2026), at about $12.27 a click in search ads: a month of its searches would cost about $332.5K as search ads. Each site checked on the backlink value checker adds its top five search keywords, so this list grows as sites are checked.

Keyword intelligence

27.1KGoogle monthly search volume+50% since Oct 2025

no changeLast 3 months vs 3 beforesteady

71/100Demand scorestrong

22/100Keyword difficulty (US)easy

NavigationalSearch intentlooking for a site

$12.27Google Ads cost per clicktop-of-page bids $1.26–$35.44

4,380Third-party estimated keyword demand−25% vs Aug 2026

1Sites getting visits from itSept 2026

What the data says

Demand is up on the year, now levelling off: Google searches for “indie hacker” rose 50% (18.1K to 27.1K) from Oct 2025 to Sept 2026.
The listed sites' estimated visits from “indie hacker” (4,400 a month) exceed its 4,380 searches: the estimates count visits from close searches too, so the listed sites take most of its traffic, not more than all of it.
From Aug 2026 to Sept 2026: indiehackers.com lost most (6,420 → 4,400).
At $12.27 a click (Google Ads), the listed sites' 4,400 visits a month from “indie hacker” would cost about $54K as search ads. That is what the traffic would cost to buy, not what it earns.
The two sources differ about 6 times for Sept 2026: Google Ads counts 27.1K searches, the traffic estimates 4,380. Read each for its trend, not as an exact count.

1Demand

Search demand, month by month

Google monthly search volume (Google Ads, worldwide)Third-party estimated keyword demand (right axis)

Every month's figures

	Oct 2025	Nov 2025	Dec 2025	Jan 2026	Feb 2026	Mar 2026	Apr 2026	May 2026	Jun 2026	Jul 2026	Aug 2026	Sept 2026
Google monthly search volume (Google Ads, worldwide)	18.1K	18.1K	22.2K	27.1K	22.2K	33.1K	33.1K	27.1K	27.1K	33.1K	27.1K	27.1K
Third-party estimated keyword demand (right axis)	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	5,860	4,380

Google monthly search volume: Google Ads, worldwide, read 1 Nov 2026. Third-party estimated keyword demand is a separate source, many times apart in size, so it has its own axis at the right: read the two lines for their trends. Google Ads counts close spellings as one keyword: “indie hacker” has the same figures as “indie hackers”, so these are the group's searches.

2Who gets the traffic

Visits from it by site, month by month

indiehackers.com

Visits from this keyword (est.), stacked by site: a column is all the listed sites' visits from it that month.

Share of the visits, Sept 2026

Site	Share	Visits	As ads	DR	Linking sites
indiehackers.com	100%	4,400	$54K	82	16.4K

Each site's latest estimate of its visits from this keyword; “As ads”: those visits at its cost per click, what they would cost to buy; DR: Ahrefs Domain Rating; linking sites: sites linking to it (third-party link index).

Where these sites' visitors are

United States13%
United Kingdom10%
India10%
Germany9%
France5%
Other countries53%

The listed sites' own visitors by country (all their traffic), weighted by each site's visits from this keyword: their audience, not where the keyword is searched.

Phones and computers

Phones37%
Computers and tablets63%

Page loads of the listed sites by Chrome users (Chrome UX Report), weighted by each site's visits from this keyword: a site's device mix, not the keyword's. No source gives a keyword's device split.

3Ranking competition

22/100Keyword difficulty (US)easy

42/100Ranking easecontested

DR 94First page, median Ahrefs DR

264Linking sites per top-ten pageaverage, US

On Google's page:People also askDiscussions and forumsPerspectivesRelated searchesAI Overview

Google's first page, United States

#	Site	Page title	DR	BV
1	reddit.comon mxverify	HOW TO Become A INDIE HACKER : r/SaaS	95	$183
2	reddit.comon mxverify	Is the Indie Hacker dream actually worth it?	95	$183
3	foundersconfidential418.substack.com	I profiled 80 companies for Indie Hackers. Here's what I ...	94	—
4	facebook.comon mxverify	Indie Hackers (@IndieHackers)	100	$227
5	indiehackers.comlisted here	[Discussion] What is an Indie Hacker?	82	$90
6	medium.comon mxverify	I'm Tired of Indie Hackers	94	$119
7	indiehackers.comlisted here	Indie Founders, How Did You Go About Finding Your Idea ...	82	$90

Google's results for “indie hacker” in the United States, in English, read 1 Nov 2026. DR: Ahrefs Domain Rating; “—”: Ahrefs gives no rating. BV: what a new followed link from a site with a report on mxverify is worth (its report says what the figure rests on).

Keyword difficulty is 22 of 100 for US results: easy on the vendor's scale.
reddit.com has 2 results in Google's top 7 for “indie hacker”.
1 of the sites listed here is in Google's US top 7: indiehackers.com (#5, #7).
The first page's median Ahrefs DR is 94; the lowest-rated result, indiehackers.com at #5, has DR 82.
The top ten pages have about 264 linking sites each on average (US results, third-party link index).
Google shows an AI Overview for “indie hacker”, citing 6 sites, indiehackers.com among them: it sits above the results and takes clicks from them.

4Intent and related searches

Navigational: looking for a site · also informational
The searcher's goal, as a third-party keyword database classifies it (US).

Google's related searches

Indie hacker app
Indie hacker reviews
Indie hackers community
Indie hackers X
Indie hackers podcast
Indie Hackers Discord
Indie hackers login
Indie hackers instagram

Questions people ask

What is the meaning of indie hacker?
Who are the top 10 hackers?
How much do Indie Hackers make?
Who is the youngest hacker in the world?

Keywords the same sites get visits from

best iptv service 1 of these sites · 1 site in all
indie hackers 1 of these sites · 1 site in all
indiehackers 1 of these sites · 1 site in all
the tv app 1 of these sites · 1 site in all

Keywords the listed sites also get visits from, the most shared first: linked by the same sites' traffic, not by meaning.

5Opportunity

71/100 · Demand score, strong

How much searching there is and what advertisers pay for it.

Searches	69	27.1K a month · weight 40%
Year	65	+50% since Oct 2025 · weight 20%
Momentum	50	last 3 months +0% on the 3 before · weight 20%
Commercial	100	$12.27 a click (Google Ads) · weight 20%

42/100 · Ranking ease, contested

How open Google's first page is: 100 minus its difficulty and strength.

Keyword difficulty	78	22 of 100 (US) · weight 50%
First-page strength	6	median Ahrefs DR 94 · weight 50%

What to do with it

Treat it as a brand search: Google answers “indie hacker” with the brand's own pages, so a third-party page competes for what is left; Google's related searches show the angles people take: “Indie hacker app”, “Indie hacker reviews”, “Indie hackers community”.
Google answers part of it in an AI Overview: the pages it cites get a link above the results.

A business score needs your own figures (conversion, deal value) and is not made here. Scores are fixed formulas over the figures shown; they are not Google's.

6Sources

Google monthly search volume, Google Ads cost per click, bids and paid competition: Google Ads, worldwide, read 1 Nov 2026.
Third-party estimated keyword demand, cost per click and each site's visits (est.): third-party traffic estimates, Aug 2026 to Sept 2026.
Keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features, top-ten links: a third-party keyword database, United States, read 1 Nov 2026.
Google's first page, AI Overview, related searches: Google search, United States, read 1 Nov 2026.
DR: Ahrefs Domain Rating. Linking sites: a third-party link index.
Phones and computers: Chrome UX Report.

Tiles, findings, scores and actions are worked out from the figures on this page by fixed rules.

Site	Report	Visits (est.)	Month
indiehackers.com	Valued	4,400	Sept 2026

Listed A–Z. A top search keyword is one of the searches that bring a site the most visitors, by estimate. It is not a position in Google, and the order here is not a ranking. Visits (est.): the traffic estimate's own figure for the keyword on that site, which behaves like visits a month, not an amount of money (2026-09-29: it had been shown in dollars). Ad value is what advertisers pay for the keyword — its searches × cost per click — not how hard it is to rank for. This page is kept out of search results until 15 sites share the keyword.

Searches, cost per click and ad value above: Google Ads, worldwide. Sites and their visits: third-party traffic estimates, Sept 2026. The traffic estimates' own searches figure for the keyword is in the section below; the two sources often differ several times over.