I used to follow every SEO rule
There was a time when my SEO process was basically a checklist.
Title length? Checked.
Keyword density? Checked.
Internal links? Checked.
Tool score above 90? Perfect.
And yet, many of those pages did nothing. Some ranked briefly, then disappeared. Others never moved at all.
That’s when it clicked: following best practices is easy. Understanding when they don’t matter is the real skill.
Best practices age faster than people admit
SEO advice has a short shelf life.
What worked two or three years ago often becomes background noise today. Google changes, SERPs change, and user expectations change even faster.
When you rely too much on “best practices,” you end up optimizing for yesterday’s search engine, not today’s users.
SEO works better when you break rules carefully
Some of my best-performing pages break at least one so-called rule.
Long introductions.
No exact-match keyword in the title.
Minimal internal links.
They work because they are clear, useful, and honest. Users stay, read, and trust the page. Search engines follow that behavior over time.
Rules are guidelines, not guarantees.
What I focus on instead
Instead of chasing every recommendation, I focus on a few fundamentals.
First, intent clarity.
Before publishing, I ask: can a first-time visitor understand what this page is about within five seconds?
Second, reading experience.
If a page feels tiring to read, it usually performs poorly long-term.
Third, usefulness over completeness.
I don’t try to cover everything. I try to solve one problem well.
Tools stopped being my starting point
SEO tools are great at telling you what’s missing.
They’re terrible at telling you what matters.
I now open tools only after I understand the page, the user, and the goal. Tools confirm decisions; they don’t make them.
What this changed in my results
Traffic became more stable.
Pages aged better.
Updates became less scary.
Most importantly, SEO started to feel calmer. Less reaction, more intention.
A simple filter I use today
Before optimizing or publishing anything, I ask one question:
Would this still make sense if Google didn’t exist?
If the answer is yes, the page usually performs. If not, it probably won’t survive long-term.