Most SEO advice chases the latest algorithm update or AI hack.

I didn't start with a grand plan. In 2011, as a broke college student trying to avoid a career as a lawyer, I created a blog about baseball pitching to figure out how to make money online. I failed to get any traffic, which forced me to discover SEO. For the first few years I relied heavily on gray-hat tactics and private blog networks because they were an easy way to rank quickly.

That came crashing down in 2015 when Google issued manual actions across my entire network, penalizing my sites and my clients' sites overnight. It was the wake-up call I needed. I abandoned artificial tactics entirely and rebuilt my methodology around content-driven, white-hat SEO — focused on what actually adds value and withstands algorithm changes. That shift led me to document and systematize my process, which eventually became the foundation for everything I've built since.

Most agencies obsess over vanity traffic and top-of-funnel informational content just to make their charts look good. I think that's a massive waste of resources. I build strategies from the bottom of the funnel up, focused on commercial and transactional intent that actually generates a return.

I also disagree with the current trend of mass-producing AI content for the sake of publishing velocity. Pumping out generic content is a dangerous game that won't survive the next core update. SEO is a game of quality, originality, and extreme relevance. At its core, it's not about manipulating algorithms — it's about the fundamental skill of getting a business more customers.