SEO Advice That Actually Works (And What to Ignore)

I’ve been doing SEO for over 16 years. And in that time, I’ve watched more businesses get hurt by bad SEO advice than by no SEO at all.

The problem isn’t a lack of information. There are thousands of blog posts, YouTube videos, and Twitter threads telling you how to rank on Google. The problem is that most of it is outdated, oversimplified, or flat-out wrong.

Keyword density? Dead. Meta keywords? Google hasn’t used them since 2009. Buying backlinks from Fiverr? That’s a penalty waiting to happen.

So I’m going to do something different here. Instead of telling you to “trust the experts,” I’m going to give you the actual good advice so you can evaluate any SEO recommendation yourself. You’ll know what works, what doesn’t, and how to spot a snake oil pitch from a mile away.

Outdated SEO Advice You Should Stop Following

Some SEO tactics worked in 2010. Some worked in 2015. Very few of them work now. But they keep circulating because people keep sharing old articles without checking dates. If you’re still following any of these, you’re wasting time.

“Hit a 2-3% Keyword Density”

This is the zombie of SEO advice. It won’t die. The idea that you need your target keyword to appear in exactly 2-3% of your total word count has zero basis in how Google works in 2026. Google uses natural language processing and understands synonyms, context, and intent. Stuffing your keyword 47 times into a 2,000-word article doesn’t help. It makes your content worse.

I’ve seen pages rank #1 with the exact keyword appearing twice. I’ve seen pages with “perfect” keyword density stuck on page 5. The correlation between keyword density and rankings is basically zero.

“Add Meta Keywords to Every Page”

Google confirmed they don’t use the meta keywords tag. They said this in 2009. That’s over 15 years ago. If someone tells you to add meta keywords, they haven’t updated their knowledge since the Obama administration. Bing doesn’t use them for ranking either. Skip this entirely.

“Submit Your Site to Google”

You don’t need to manually submit your URL to Google for it to appear in search results. Google’s crawlers find new pages on their own through links. Yes, you should set up Google Search Console and submit your sitemap. But “submitting your site” as a ranking strategy? That’s not how it works.

“Publish as Many Pages as Possible”

More pages doesn’t equal more traffic. I’ve audited sites with 3,000+ pages where 85% of them got zero organic visits. Those thin, low-value pages actually dragged down the entire site’s quality signals. Google’s Helpful Content system in 2026 evaluates your site as a whole. A hundred mediocre pages will hurt your twenty good ones.

SEO Advice That Actually Works in 2026

Now for the stuff that moves the needle. These aren’t tricks or hacks. They’re fundamentals that have worked for years and will keep working because they align with what Google actually rewards: useful content that people want to read.

Build Topical Authority, Not Just Individual Pages

Google doesn’t just rank pages. It evaluates whether your site is an authority on a topic. If you write one article about “email marketing,” you’re competing against sites that have 50 articles covering every angle of email marketing.

I’ve tested this across multiple client sites. When I helped a SaaS blog build a cluster of 15 articles around “project management” (covering tools, methods, templates, remote team tips, and comparisons), their primary article jumped from position 23 to position 4 in about three months. The individual articles weren’t special. But together, they told Google: “This site knows project management inside and out.”

Start with a pillar page on your main topic. Then build supporting articles that cover subtopics in depth. Link them together. That’s topical authority. A tool like Semrush can help you map out topic clusters and find the gaps in your coverage. Their Topic Research feature shows you every subtopic and question people search for around your main keyword.

Match Search Intent Every Time

Search intent is the single most important ranking factor most people ignore. If someone searches “best CRM software,” they want a comparison list. If someone searches “what is a CRM,” they want a definition. If someone searches “HubSpot pricing,” they want numbers, not a 3,000-word history of HubSpot.

Before writing any page, search your target keyword. Look at what’s ranking on page 1. Are the results how-to guides? Listicles? Product pages? That tells you exactly what format Google expects. If every result is a comparison table and you publish an opinion essay, you won’t rank. It’s that simple.

I do this keyword research step for every article I write. It takes 5 minutes and saves hours of wasted effort.

E-E-A-T Is Real (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust)

Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines spell this out clearly. They want content from people who actually know what they’re talking about. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. The double “E” (Experience) was added in late 2022, and it matters a lot.

What does this mean in practice? Show your credentials. Write from first-hand experience. Include author bios with real backgrounds. Link to your other work. If you’re writing about WordPress security, mention that you’ve managed 200+ WordPress sites. If you’re writing about email marketing, show your actual open rates.

I’ve seen pages with great content outranked by pages with okay content but stronger author signals. Google is getting better at figuring out who actually has experience. This is especially important for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics like health, finance, and legal advice.

Get Your Technical Foundations Right

Technical SEO isn’t glamorous, but it’s the foundation everything else sits on. If Google can’t crawl your site properly, your great content doesn’t matter. Here’s what actually moves the needle on the technical side:

• Page speed matters. Google has confirmed Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor. Sites that load in under 2.5 seconds (LCP) have a real edge. I run Rank Math on most of my WordPress sites because it’s lightweight and doesn’t add the bloat that other SEO plugins do.
• Mobile-first indexing is the default. Google uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking. If your mobile experience is bad, your rankings will suffer regardless of how good the desktop version looks.
• Fix broken links and redirect chains. A site with hundreds of 404 errors and redirect loops signals poor maintenance. Run a crawl with Semrush‘s Site Audit tool quarterly. It catches issues you’d never find manually.
• Use proper heading hierarchy. One H1 per page. H2s for main sections. H3s for subsections. This helps Google understand your content structure.
• Implement schema markup. FAQ schema, review schema, how-to schema. These won’t directly boost rankings, but they get you rich snippets that increase click-through rates by 20-30%.

Internal Linking Is Underrated

Most people obsess over backlinks from other sites and completely ignore internal links. Your internal linking structure tells Google which pages are most important and how topics relate to each other.

I ran an experiment on one of my sites last year. I added 3-5 contextual internal links to 50 articles that had decent content but were stuck on page 2. Within 6 weeks, 18 of those 50 articles moved to page 1. No new content. No backlink outreach. Just internal links.

Use descriptive anchor text (not “click here”). Link from high-authority pages to pages you want to rank better. And make sure every important page on your site is reachable within 3 clicks from your homepage.

How AI Search Is Changing SEO in 2026

Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT’s search features, Perplexity, and other AI-powered search tools are changing how people find information. This is the biggest shift in search since mobile. You can’t ignore it.

AI search tools pull information from multiple sources and present synthesized answers. This means fewer clicks to websites for simple informational queries. If your entire SEO strategy depends on ranking for “what is [X]” questions, you’re going to lose traffic.

But there are things AI search can’t easily replace:

• First-hand experience. “I tested 15 project management tools over 3 months” beats a summary of feature lists.
• Original data and research. If you run surveys, share performance benchmarks, or publish case studies, AI tools will cite you as a source.
• Complex decision-making content. “Should I switch from Shopify to WooCommerce?” requires context that AI can’t fully provide.
• Community and trust. People still want to buy from brands they trust. AI can summarize your content, but it can’t replace your relationship with your audience.

The smart play is to create content that AI wants to cite. That means being a primary source, not rewriting what everyone else already said.

How to Evaluate Any SEO Advice (A Simple Framework)

You don’t need to become an SEO expert to filter good advice from bad. Use this framework whenever someone tells you to do something for SEO.

Ask: “When Was This Written?”

SEO changes fast. Google rolled out over 4,500 changes to search in a single year. Advice from 2019 might be actively harmful in 2026. Always check the publication date and the last-updated date. If the article doesn’t have either, be suspicious.

Ask: “Does Google Confirm This?”

Google’s official documentation, their Search Central blog, and John Mueller’s statements on Twitter are the closest thing we have to ground truth. If someone claims a ranking factor exists but Google has explicitly said it doesn’t (like meta keywords), believe Google.

Ask: “Is There Data Behind This?”

Good SEO advice comes with evidence. “We tested this across 50 sites and saw a 15% increase” is useful. “This is a best practice” without any data is just an opinion dressed up as a fact. I always look for case studies, correlation studies, or at minimum, screenshots of actual results.

Ask: “Who Benefits From This Advice?”

Follow the money. If an SEO tool company tells you that you need to track 50 different metrics daily, they’re selling you their tool. If a link building agency says backlinks are the only thing that matters, they’re selling their service. The most trustworthy SEO advice often comes from practitioners who have nothing to sell you on that specific topic.

Red Flags When Hiring SEO Help

I’ve seen businesses waste $10,000+ on bad SEO services. Here are the warning signs I tell every client to watch for.

A good SEO consultant or agency will ask about your business first. They’ll want to know your revenue goals, your target customers, your competition. They’ll talk about timelines of 3-6 months for meaningful results. And they’ll be transparent about exactly what they’re doing and why.

The SEO Priority Matrix: Where to Spend Your Time

Not all SEO tasks are equal. Some take 10 minutes and move the needle significantly. Others take weeks and barely make a difference. Here’s how I prioritize SEO work for my own sites and my clients.

Quick wins (low effort, high impact):

• Fix title tags and meta descriptions for your top 20 pages
• Add internal links to orphan pages
• Update old content with current information
• Fix broken links and 404 errors
• Add schema markup to key pages

Big projects (high effort, high impact):

• Build topical clusters around your core topics
• Create original research or data studies
• Earn editorial backlinks through content partnerships
• Overhaul site architecture and navigation

Time wasters (low impact regardless of effort):

• Obsessing over keyword density
• Submitting to hundreds of directories
• Buying cheap backlinks
• Rewriting meta keywords
• Chasing every algorithm update reactively

Start with quick wins. Then invest in the big projects. And stop doing the time wasters today. If you want to track what’s working, the combination of Google Search Console (free) and Semrush (paid, but worth it for serious sites) gives you everything you need to measure progress.

The Tools That Actually Help

You don’t need 10 SEO tools. You need 2-3 good ones and the discipline to use them consistently. Here’s what I use on every project:

Google Search Console (free): This is non-negotiable. It shows you exactly which keywords you rank for, your click-through rates, indexing issues, and Core Web Vitals data. If you’re only going to use one tool, use this. I’ve written a full Google Search Console guide if you need help setting it up.

Semrush: My primary paid SEO tool. I use it for keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, backlink monitoring, and position tracking. The site audit feature alone has saved me hundreds of hours. It catches technical issues like slow pages, broken links, duplicate content, and crawl errors automatically. If you’re running a business that depends on organic traffic, the $129/month is easy to justify.

Rank Math: The best WordPress SEO plugin, period. I switched from Yoast years ago and never looked back. It’s faster, has more features in the free version, and the Pro version ($59/year) includes schema markup, rank tracking, and advanced analytics. For any WordPress site, this is what I install first. Check out my full SEO tools roundup if you want more options.

What to Focus on Right Now

If you’ve read this far, you already know more than most people about what works in SEO. But knowing isn’t enough. You need to actually do the work.

Here’s what I’d do this week if I were starting from scratch:

1. Set up Google Search Console if you haven’t already. Submit your sitemap.
2. Run a site audit with Semrush or Screaming Frog. Fix the critical technical issues first.
3. Identify your top 10 pages by traffic. Update them with fresh content, better internal links, and proper schema.
4. Pick one topic cluster to build out. Write a pillar page and 5-8 supporting articles.
5. Stop doing things that don’t matter. Delete or noindex thin content. Stop chasing keyword density. Focus on creating the best page on the internet for your topic.

SEO isn’t magic. It’s showing up consistently, creating genuinely useful content, and getting the technical basics right. The people who fail at SEO are usually chasing shortcuts or following advice that stopped working years ago. The people who win are the ones who understand what Google actually rewards and do that work every single week.

Stop listening to anyone who promises quick results. Start building something that compounds over time. That’s the only SEO advice that’s never going out of style.

Frequently Asked Questions

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