.png)
3 days ago
1
Even some of the good ones are terrible at basic seo.
If you can’t lead a SEO conversation then don’t that’s not entirely a bad thing
The SEO Illusion: 2025 Edition — Brutal Truths & Survival Tactics
After two decades of SEO’s evolution — from keyword stuffing to AI-powered chaos — one thing is clear: Most of what the industry preaches is noise. The real game is played in the shadows, not in Google’s guidelines or guru blog posts.
Here’s the unfiltered merger of hard-won truths and 2025 survival tactics — because the game has changed, and most haven’t noticed.
“The beautiful contradiction of SEO is that we’re optimizing for an algorithm designed to resist optimization. It’s like teaching a fish to climb trees — possible, profitable, and completely absurd.” —Simon Dodson
Part 1: The Great SEO Myths (2025 Update)
Where advice is plentiful — but impact is rare
Google’s Guidelines Are Controlled Opposition
They keep beginners compliant while pros reverse-engineer real signals.
2025 Twist: Bing’s guidelines are still more honest — but Google’s SGE now dictates the real rules.
Most SEOs Are LARPing as Experts
They parrot trends, not test them. Real players operate in silence.
2025 Twist: AI has flooded the field with “experts” who’ve never ranked a site.
Agencies Sell Hours, Not Outcomes
Their model rewards busywork, not results. Retainers are the scam.
2025 Twist: The best “agencies” now operate as in-house mercenaries (or vanish).
“Every SEO agency eventually becomes what it was meant to disrupt: a consultancy charging premium rates to explain why last month’s strategy didn’t work.” —Simon Dodson
Technical SEO Is Mostly Masturbation
Basic hygiene > obsessive optimization. Real tech SEO? Enterprise-level infrastructure.
2025 Twist: JSON-LD & API-driven content now matter more than meta tags.
4.1 for 99% of websites crawl budget is a myth, absolute bullshit. Stop pretending you’re Amazon.
Jus Shut up.
Core Web Vitals Is a Distraction
You don’t need a perfect score. You need a site that converts.
2025 Twist: Google’s shifting to SGE-compatible structured data as the new ranking factor.
Audits Are Strategy Theater
Implementation wins. Most audits die in Google Docs purgatory.
2025 Twist: AI-generated audits are the new snake oil.
Third-Party Metrics Are Horoscopes
DA/DR are astrology for marketers. Revenue is the only metric.
2025 Twist: Google now weighs off-SERP authority (YouTube, LinkedIn, podcasts).
Interlude: The Dishwasher Parable
The Story:
Imagine you own a restaurant. Every night, you pay a guy $5,000/month to hand-wash your dishes with a leaky sponge.
He’s slow.
He’s expensive.
Half the dishes come out dirty.
But you keep paying him because:
✅ “He’s always available!”
✅ “He promises next month will be better!”
✅ “I don’t have time to fix it myself!”
That’s PPC in 2025.
“PPC is the industry’s most elegant paradox: immediate results that guarantee long-term dependency. We’ve monetized impatience and called it performance marketing.” —Simon Dodson
But here’s the thing: The dishwasher guy is now so bad at his job, he’s destroying your profit margin. He’s not just inefficient — he’s actively counterproductive to your P&L. It’s over, bro.
The Link Seller: Your High School’s Worst Boyfriend
And if you’ve got a bad ads guy, guaranteed there’s a link team lurking. Remember that guy from high school? The one dating the cutest girl in your grade 10 class group.
Usually names: Jason, Shane or worse Corey.
Recently divorced
Drove a busted Honda Civic
Wore drooping cross earrings
Was the “DJ” at the local skate rink/bowling alley
And he’s thirty fkn 2
Side hustles as business ventures
Sold the worst weed — nothing but seeds and stems
But you were too young and stupid to know better.
That’s your agency link seller. Reread that.
If you’re buying links in 2025, that’s exactly who you’re dealing with. Same energy, same results, same product he had in ‘96, same schtick.
The SEO Dishwasher vs. The Ads Guy
SEO Dishwasher PPC Ads Guy
You own it. (Build once, runs forever) You rent it. (Stop paying → traffic vanishes)
Gets smarter over time. (Rankings compound) Resets every month. (Bid flip → restart campaigns)
Washes dishes for free. (Organic traffic) Charges per plate. ($50/lead, $200/sale)
Only works if you maintain it. (Content, UX, links) “Just give me money and pray.”
The 2025 Twist: Google Broke Your Dishwasher
With SGE (AI answers stealing clicks) and rising ad costs, the old playbook is dying.
PPC guys: Still charging you $10,000/month to hand-wash dishes while the kitchen burns.
SEO guys: Installing self-cleaning systems (brands, communities, owned traffic).
The moral? PPC is a short-term fix. SEO is a long-term asset. But the real winners? They stop worrying about dishes — and build a restaurant people line up for.
Part 2: What Actually Moves the Needle (2025 Edition)
The boring fundamentals that still win — plus new rules
Site Architecture Signals Priority
Structure = strategy. 2025 Twist: SGE rewards entity-based clustering.
Not Every Indexing Issue Matters
50% are noise. 2025 Twist: If Google won’t index you, you’re irrelevant.
AI & Voice Search Are Just Search with Extra Steps
Interfaces change. Fundamentals don’t.
2025 Twist: AI answers mean zero-click searches are the norm.
Health Beats Hacks
Burnout doesn’t scale. Energy is your unfair advantage.
2025 Twist: The best SEOs now outsource execution, not strategy.
“The greatest strategic advantage in SEO isn’t finding shortcuts — it’s having the discipline to execute fundamentals while everyone else chases silver bullets.” —Simon Dodson
Failure Is Tuition
If you’ve never broken something, you’ve never pushed the edge.
2025 Twist: AI lets you fail faster (if you’re smart).
Internal Linking Is a Power Move
Backlinks get headlines. Internal links win quietly.
2025 Twist: Google now follows topic authority clusters.
Context Always Beats Copying
Your site. Your market. Your rules.
2025 Twist: AI-scraped content dies. Unique insights win.
Part 3: The Industry’s Dirty Secrets (2025 Update)
Why mediocrity thrives — and how to escape it
95% of SEOs Aren’t Really SEOs
They’re link builders, writers, or prompt engineers in disguise.
16. Real Technical SEO Is Rare
It’s not “missing alt tags.” It’s global infrastructure.
SEO Tools Breed Strategic Sameness
Everyone chases the same opportunities. Differentiate or disappear.
Zero-Click SERPs Are Stealing Your Traffic
Google is the new middleman. You’re the product.
19. Local SEO Is Paid Play Wearing an Organic Mask
Google Business Profiles = ads pretending to be directories.
20. Confidence Beats Competence in This Industry
Pitch decks win more than performance. 2025 Twist: AI makes this worse.
“The most dangerous SEO is the one who believes their own pitch deck. The most successful SEO is the one who knows it’s all theater but delivers results anyway.” —Simon Dodson
The 2025 Survival Addendum
What’s new, what’s dead, and what’s non-negotiable
Google’s SGE = SEO’s Slow Death
40% of queries now answered in-line. Informational SEO is dying.
AI Content = Oxygen (If You’re Elite)
Google rewards brands + proprietary data. Everyone else gets buried.
SEO Is Now a Brand Game
Top 3 organic spots? Reddit, legacy media, or VC-funded startups.
The New “Backlinks” = Platform Leverage
YouTube, LinkedIn, and podcasts outrank traditional SEO.
The Only Technical SEO That Matters in 2025
Structured data for SGE > Core Web Vitals.
How to Fire the Dishwasher Guy in 2025
Redirect 20% of ad spend into SEO
Example: Turn top-performing ad copy into 10X landing pages.
Own the demand before Google
Build an email list, Discord, or app — where you control the traffic.
Make ads work for YOU
Use PPC to test messaging, then scale what works organically.
Final Word: The Beautiful Lie (2025 Edition)
We’ll still obsess over rankings. Still chase backlinks. Still run audits nobody reads.
But the brutal truth remains:
Most sites just need better content, smarter structure, and relentless execution.
Everything else? Theater.
And theater, as always, sells better than truth.
“In the end, SEO is just humanity’s latest attempt to game a system designed to be ungameable. The fact that it sometimes works is proof that even perfect algorithms have perfectly exploitable flaws.” —Simon Dodson
(Now go check your last ad report. If it’s not funding organic growth, you’re the guy with the sponge. And if you’re buying links? You’re dating that Honda Civic guy from high school.) 🧽💸
book.rite.io
https://blog.venturemagazine.net/the-silent-killer-one-mans-unintentional-surgical-dismantling-of-marketings-bloated-corpse-9ef59248a704
