The Big Book of SEO
or: Why I’m So Tired of Gurus
I’m writing a book that’s scheduled to come out sometime in late 2026.
That is, if I actually finish it.
Anyone who knows me knows I have a truly elite ability to abandon personal projects the moment my brain finds something shinier. So no promises. But this one has been sitting in my head for three to five years now, and it refuses to go away.
The project has taken a few forms over time. It started as internal content for an old agency. Then it turned into something tentatively called The Big Book of SEO. And now, as I’m finally writing it properly, it has managed to do what SEO always does to me:
It has made me slightly enraged.
Not because SEO is bad, but because the SEO industry is, frankly, a guru-infested swamp.
I’m currently myth-busting common SEO claims with the help of AI (yes, I’m saying that out loud, mass research is where it shines). And the deeper I go, the more obvious the problem becomes: most of what circulates as “SEO knowledge” is a mixture of half-truths, misunderstood correlations, outdated tactics, and confidence delivered at full volume.
If you ever ask me for SEO advice, my answer is boring and consistent:
Focus on content first. SEO follows later.
That’s the entire point of a website. Not spam. Not over-optimised garbage. Not pages written for robots that nobody actually wants to read. Real content, written for humans, that helps someone find or understand something.
SEO should be a by-product of doing that well, not the thing you strangle your business over.
The Ranking Factor Industrial Complex
A large part of this book uses a well-known Backlinko article as a structural reference, the one that lists 200+ “ranking factors.”
And to be clear: the article itself isn’t bad. It’s effective content. People search for “Google ranking factors,” click the article with the biggest number, skim one sentence per item, and move on. Mission accomplished. Funnel successful.
But this is where the damage starts.
People forget how patents work.
They forget that correlation ≠ causation.
They forget survivorship bias exists.
We look at giant websites and say things like:
“SEMrush uses a blog subdomain and their blog ranks well, therefore subdomains must rank better.”
That conclusion is… astonishing.
A subdomain doesn’t magically make you rank higher. SEMrush ranks because it has authority, resources, brand trust, years of content, internal linking strength, and massive engagement signals. The subdomain is incidental. But that nuance gets lost, and suddenly small businesses are restructuring their entire sites based on a cargo-cult interpretation of success.
This is the core problem:
we try to serialise thirty years of highly complex, evolving ranking systems into neat, digestible explanations like “This is why you rank better.”
It’s not how it works.
It has never been how it works.
Please stop pretending it is.
Who Pays for the Myths?
The real cost of all this isn’t academic, it’s human.
A client eventually comes to me and asks, “Is this why XYZ isn’t working?” And I have to explain, again, that it doesn’t work like that. Meanwhile, SEO Agency Number Five on the Gold Coast has vanity-boosted their metrics with garbage tactics, declared victory, and disappeared, leaving behind a site that now needs long-term rehabilitation.
Companies want quick wins.
SEO is not a quick win.
Anyone promising fast results is lying, or worse, selling shortcuts that damage your credibility. It’s drug-running logic: quick money now, consequences later. Maybe it’s a spam takedown. Maybe it’s a brand trust issue. Either way, the bill always arrives.
The right way is slower. Harder. Boring. Ethical.
Just like most things worth doing.
God forbid a guru tells you that.
Mini rant over.
Time to finish the book, so you get something useful out of it, and I can finally stop carrying this around in my head, knowing my tiny, tin-pot, largely penniless contribution to the SEO universe actually helped someone.
That feels like a fair trade.
p.s. The image for this article is part of a new project I am working on writing, follow me on Instagram to see this progressing in real time (or just wait for the article series, your choice!)