I'm a terrible SEO.
I don't read the algorithm leaks.
I couldn't tell you when last core update was.
I don't understand semantic couplets, triplets, or keyword density ratios.
I've never opened Screaming Frog.
I can't hook up the Ahrefs API to Claude (tried n failed)
This stuff is useful. But I've never approached SEO campaigns this way.
Here's what I do know:
I understand the value of search as a channel + I understand what search engines are actually trying to show their users.
So I structure campaigns that you'd just call 'general marketing' or 'branding', and layer search strategies like Blogger Outreach, Niche Edits or Digital PR sensibly on top.
My campaigns aren't built around gaming an algorithm. They're built around making content/services more findable + surfacing brands in search and AI for the right questions and queries.
For the optimal search campaign I would ideally touch branding, reputation, brand sentiment + the wider business in general
But this all sounds very 'white hat', which I'm not. I'm a realist.
I understand that measured link building campaigns, in the right industries, are what maximise performance, results, and most importantly ROI.
Supplemental/solicited link building works best when it's layered onto a campaign that would already make sense as a normal branding effort, even if Google didn't exist. The brand should be set up to be attracting links too.
Nowadays if I’m doing link building for personal projects or helping friends out, I just subscribe to fatjoe Grow. It’s completely managed and set and forget.
I took a while for my to get into this mindset when I started SEO.
But when I stopped thinking like a bedroom affiliate SEO and started thinking like a marketer who's not afraid to push boundaries in the right places, the results followed.
Hit reply if this resonates or you have any deeper q’s about links.
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