SEO is one of those things everyone thinks they understand until they actually have to do it. Like assembling flat-pack furniture or maintaining a houseplant, it seems straightforward enough—until you realize one wrong move and you’re lost at sea, with traffic numbers that won’t budge and an algorithm that’s punishing your efforts with all the mercy of a 19th-century schoolmaster.
To the untrained eye, SEO looks like stuffing keywords into a page and hoping for the best. But for those in the know, it’s a discipline of almost monastic complexity, where one slight adjustment can mean the difference between digital obscurity and being on the first page of Google. It’s strategy, data analysis and gut instinct and requires the patience of a saint. But fear not—there are principles to follow, rules to obey and, if you’re lucky, tools to make the whole thing slightly less mad.
1. SEO Without Data is Just Guesswork
Have you ever sat through a marketing meeting where someone suggests “just making the content better”? You’ll know the despair of SEO done badly. The idea that better content will win the day is lovely, like believing better shoes will help you run faster. The reality is, without data, you’re just throwing words into the void and hoping something sticks.
This is where a rank tracker comes in. SEO is, at its heart, a numbers game—an endless struggle to measure, adjust and optimise. A rank tracker tells you where you are in the digital hierarchy, what keywords are working for you and, most painfully, where your competitors are wiping the floor with you. It’s not enough to produce good content; you must know how it’s performing, how it’s being indexed and where it’s ranking in the search engine pecking order. Without tracking, SEO is just expensive guesswork.
2. Keywords Are Not Dead—They’ve Just Grown Up
Every few years someone emerges from the SEO wilderness to declare keywords are dead. Usually this is because Google has released another algorithm update and marketers—which are dramatic—take this to mean everything they know is now obsolete. The truth is, keywords are still very much alive, but the way they work has evolved.
The days of stuffing a page with “best pizza in London” 12 times and hoping to bamboozle the algorithm are over. Search engines are frighteningly clever; they understand context, intent and even how people phrase their queries in real life. This means SEO is no longer just about keywords but topics, relevance and answering actual human questions. If you’re still treating SEO like it’s 2010, you’re already behind.
3. Links Are More Important Than You Think
Backlinks are annoying. At best they are a badge of honour – a digital stamp of approval from other sites that tells search engines you’re worthy of ranking. But at worst they’re a never-ending battle to get people to link to your content without resorting to bribery or black hat tactics.
And yet, like taxes or the queue at the post office, backlinks are a fact of life. The quality of your links matters more than the quantity, which means one link from a good site is worth a dozen from dodgy directories. Earning them takes time, persistence and, ideally, content so good people can’t help but reference it. Unfortunately most content isn’t that good.
4. Technical SEO is the One No One Talks About (But Should)
If content is the shopfront of your website, technical SEO is the foundation. You can have the most beautifully written blog post in the world but if your site takes 10 seconds to load or half your pages return 404 errors, Google will treat you like a disapproving parent.
Site speed, mobile-friendliness, structured data and proper indexing – these are the unsung heroes of SEO. You can ignore them, of course, but much like ignoring an engine warning light, that only works for so long before disaster strikes.
5. SEO is a Moving Target, So Adapt or Die
The only certainty in SEO is that nothing stays the same. Search engines update their algorithms constantly, user behaviour changes and what worked yesterday is useless tomorrow. That’s why the best SEOs are not just strategists but experimenters. They test, they tweak and – most importantly – they don’t rely on one single tactic to get results.
Adaptability is the most underrated skill in SEO. Too many people cling to old tactics, insisting what worked five years ago must still be relevant today. It isn’t. The best SEOs know when to pivot, when to ditch failing strategies and when to face the uncomfortable fact that search engines don’t owe anyone an explanation.
6. If It’s Not for Humans, It’s Not for Google Either
Number one rule: SEO is about humans. Yes, we want to rank but if the content is crap, the page layout is awful or the user experience is an afterthought, then what’s the point?
Google’s algorithm is designed to mimic human behavior. It rewards content that answers questions clearly, that provides value, and that keeps people engaged. If your website exists solely to appease a search engine rather than an actual audience, you might win a few battles, but you will never win the war.
SEO is Equal Parts Art and Science
The mistake most people make with SEO is treating it as a formula rather than a discipline. It’s not just about ticking boxes – it’s about strategy, analysis and being willing to evolve. It’s about understanding how people search, why they search and what they expect to find when they do.
Yes, the algorithm is complex. Yes, it changes daily. And yes, at times it feels like an unfair machine designed to frustrate those who try to outsmart it. But at the end of the day, SEO is not about gaming the system – it’s about working with it. Do that well and the rankings will follow. Do it badly and well… you will find out why page 2 of Google is the digital equivalent of a ghost town.