Most SEO advice sounds good but rarely produces results.
“Create great content.”
“Focus on quality.”
“Google will figure it out.”
That advice ignores how Google actually works.
In this conversation, a veteran SEO with more than 26 years of experience breaks down what still moves rankings today. Not theory. Not trends. Mechanics.
This article distills the core ideas behind his approach.
Who This Perspective Comes From
The guest has worked in SEO since the mid-1990s, built and scaled multiple SaaS companies, and helped businesses grow from early stage to acquisitions in the hundreds of millions.
He has led SEO and marketing at companies that were later acquired by Progress Software and Rapid7, and currently runs a small boutique SEO agency focused on B2B SaaS.
The common thread across all of it:
SEO as a system, not a checklist.
Why “Great Content” Is Not a Strategy
The most common SEO advice is also the least useful.
“Create great content” assumes:
- Google can objectively judge quality
- quality alone determines rankings
- content exists in a vacuum
None of those assumptions hold.
Google indexes millions of competing pages for every topic. Content does not rank because it is “good”. It ranks because it fits into Google’s ranking system.
That system is still fundamentally based on PageRank and relevance.
PageRank Never Went Away
You do not need to like PageRank.
You do need to understand it.
Google still evaluates:
- how close a page is to trusted sources
- how authority flows through links
- how documents relate to each other
Modern PageRank expresses itself as topical authority.
What Topical Authority Actually Means
Topical authority is not a score.
It is not DA, DR, or any third-party metric.
It is the relationship between:
- your site
- a topic
- Google’s trust graph
A site can outrank Microsoft or Google for very specific terms if it is more relevant within that topic cluster.
Authority is always contextual.
The Core SEO Playbook
This approach consistently relies on three pillars.
1. Build Topical Authority
You do this by:
- covering a topic deeply
- structuring content logically
- linking related pages together
- letting authority compound over time
Cornerstoning works because it mirrors how Google understands topics.
2. Competitive Analysis
Do not guess.
Look at what already ranks.
Study:
- slugs
- page titles
- internal linking
- topic scope
The answers are visible in plain sight.
3. Use Case Coverage
Instead of writing generic content, build pages around real use cases.
One SaaS company scaled to tens of thousands of pages by documenting:
- every implementation
- every integration
- every real-world scenario
Those pages ranked because no one else had written them.
Why Slugs Matter More Than Most People Realize
The URL slug is the document name.
Google treats it as a primary signal of:
- topic
- relevance
- index placement
Changing a slug does not “edit” a page.
It creates a new canonical document.
That distinction explains why republishing content under a new URL can suddenly rank.
The “Republish to Rank” Effect Explained
If a page was:
- crawled but not indexed
- indexed but stuck on page two or worse
Republishing it under a new URL can:
- reintroduce it with updated topical authority
- reposition it into a less competitive index
- allow Google to evaluate it differently
This is not a hack.
It is how canonical documents work.
Why Pages Get Crawled But Not Indexed
Most pages are triaged.
Google:
- crawls far more pages than it indexes
- prioritizes pages with traffic
- deprioritizes pages with no signals
If a page never gets clicks or internal links, it can remain invisible indefinitely.
Internal linking from a page that already receives traffic can revive it without republishing.
Internal Links Beat Sitemaps for New Sites
XML sitemaps provide URLs without context.
Internal links provide:
- topical context
- relevance
- authority flow
For newer sites, linking pages in a logical sequence is more effective than submitting everything in a sitemap.
FAQ Pages Work Better as Separate URLs
For low-authority sites:
- one question per page
- short, direct answers
- clear slugs
This avoids diluting relevance and allows each question to rank independently.
Schema is optional.
URLs do the work.
Clicks Matter. Dwell Time Does Not.
Google only trusts data it controls.
That includes:
- impressions
- clicks
- CTR changes
It does not reliably use:
- bounce rate
- dwell time
- Chrome behavior data
Pogo-sticking matters because it reflects comparative click behavior in the SERP.
Time on page does not.
AI Content Is Not the Problem
Google does not penalize AI content by default.
Problems arise when:
- content is mass-generated at scale
- patterns are obvious
- systems are abused
Used properly, AI helps with:
- structure
- drafting
- overcoming writer’s block
Human review still matters, not because Google demands it, but because readers do.
Backlinks: What Actually Causes Trouble
Spammy-looking links are not the issue.
Problems come from:
- unnatural link patterns
- link farms
- repeated exact-match anchors
- scalable manipulation
Most sites should never use the disavow tool.
Negative SEO via backlinks is rare and difficult to execute effectively.
The Three Things That Move the Needle Fast
For beginners and experienced SEOs alike:
- Publish consistently within one topic
- Build relationships that create real links
- Target low-competition, bottom-of-funnel queries
Everything else is optimization noise.
Stop Putting Your Brand Name in Page Titles
Unless it is:
- pricing
- support
- contact
Brand names dilute relevance.
Google already knows your site name.
Users already see it in the snippet.
Use page titles to compete, not to brand.
SEO Is Not Dead. It Is Still Structural.
Nothing has replaced PageRank.
Nothing has replaced relevance.
Nothing has replaced links.
AI, LLMs, and new interfaces still depend on the same underlying signals.
SEO is not about tricks.
It is about understanding the system and using it deliberately.