What the F*** Is SEO?

Most people think SEO is about ranking on Google. It's not.

It’s building a system — an engine — that helps your business show up, get discovered, and earn trust when and where your users are searching. That means more than just rankings. It’s reach. Relevance. Revenue.

First Principles of SEO (as I see it)

Forget the endless checklists. SEO is just about solving for three layers of visibility:

1. Can you be found? (Technical: can Google crawl/index/render your pages?)

2. Should you be found? (Content: Do you solve a real user problem?)

3. Will you be trusted? (Authority: Do others vouch for your relevance?)

   
   

Everything else is implementation.

My 5-Layer SEO Framework (The 10x SEO Pyramid)

Every project I work on — from Practo to Edureka to your early-stage startup — gets run through these five layers:

1. User Context: Understand the Job Behind the Search

“Don’t chase keywords. Map the user’s decision journey.”

What triggers someone to Google something? What moment are they in — pain, curiosity, evaluation, urgency? That’s user context.

Forget tools for a second. I dive into forums, subreddits, Quora threads, and support chats. That’s how I learn how real users speak. Not how marketers think they speak.

If you don't understand why a user is searching, you'll never write content that lands.

2. Business Context: Align With the Reality You're In

“What can you afford to do, and what must you achieve?”

SEO without business context is a fantasy. You need to factor in:

• Product maturity: Are you pre-launch, early traction, or scaling?

• Funding stage: Do you have the money to invest in content and links?

• Sales cycle: Is your conversion window 7 minutes or 7 months?

• Hiring and bandwidth: Do you have dev/content resources to execute?

• Strategic focus: Are you brand-led, product-led, or performance-led?

I always ask three questions:→ Where are we now?→ Where do we want to be?→ How do we get there, within our constraints?

3. Technical SEO: Fix the Plumbing Before You Paint the Walls

“If Google can’t see it, it can’t rank it. Period.”

Technical SEO isn't optional. It’s foundational.

This includes:

• Crawlability: Can Google access all the pages that matter?

• Indexation: Are pages being blocked by robots.txt, noindex, etc.?

• Rendering: Is JavaScript hiding core content?

• Site structure: Are you guiding the crawler through the right paths?

• Speed & Core Web Vitals: Is Your Site Usable, Especially on Mobile?

Most dev teams unknowingly break SEO in every release. My job is to build QA guardrails that prevent regressions.

4. Content: Don’t Just Publish. Build a Library That Solves

“Your content should mirror your sales funnel and user intent.”

Every piece of content should answer one of these:

• “What is it?” → Education, definition, trends, industry POV

• “How does it help me?” → Guides, comparisons, ROI breakdowns

• “Why should I trust you?” → Case studies, testimonials, customer results

I don’t write blogs. I build libraries. And I structure them so Google sees topical depth, internal cohesion, and intent match.

Also: content ≠ 2000 words. Write what the topic demands. Not what the SEO guru on Twitter said.

5. Backlinks: Authority Is Earned (or Bought)

“Links still matter — but only the right ones.”

Google may not explicitly state it, but backlinks are still one of the top three ranking factors.

But here’s the nuance:

• Directory or niche links give foundational trust.

• Editorial links (from blogs, interviews, podcasts) compound it.

• Junk links (from spammy sources) actively hurt you.

I treat link building like sales: create something valuable, pitch it well, and follow up. You don’t "build" links. You earn them — or you pay for placement.

Either way, no links = no scale.

Execution Is Where SEO Dies — Unless You Do This

Most SEO strategies fail in execution. Not because the plan was wrong, but because it wasn’t completed.

1. Prioritize Like a Growth Marketer

“I don’t fix everything. I fix what moves numbers.”

I use the ICE framework (Impact × Confidence ÷ Effort) to score and rank SEO tasks:

• If Google can’t crawl your revenue pages — that’s Priority 1.

• If your blog titles are weak — that’s Priority 3.

I focus on the top 3 fixes that’ll unlock 80% of the impact. Everything else can wait.

2. Set Up Clear Ownership Across Teams

“No one owns SEO. That’s why it fails.”

You can't do SEO alone. You need product managers, developers, designers, writers, and leadership in sync.

I use the RACI model:

• Responsible: Who executes?

• Accountable: Who owns delivery?

• Consulted: Who guides the right way?

• Informed: Who needs to know it’s done?

When everyone knows their role, shit gets shipped.

3. Report Progress Without Bullshit

“Don’t tell me we improved rankings. Show me we moved revenue.”

I set up live dashboards (Data Studio, GSC, Ahrefs) tracking:

• Non-branded traffic growth

• Page-level and keyword-level changes

• Execution logs (what went live, what’s pending)

• Backlink velocity

• Conversions, if tied to product analytics

SEO is a long game. Reporting is how I buy patience — by showing momentum every week.

What SEO Is Not

• A checklist you can delegate to an intern

• A traffic faucet you can turn on in 2 weeks

• A “free” channel (it costs time, headcount, and clarity)

• A one-time project

SEO is a compounding engine. It pays off — but only if you play long enough, and play right.

Common SEO Failure Patterns

I've seen the same mistakes again and again.

• Founders want results in 30 days (SEO needs 6–12 months to mature)

• Dev teams break crawlability without knowing it

• Writers create content with no search demand

• No one owns execution or cross-team alignment

• SEO is isolated from product and revenue teams

My SEO Philosophy, Summed Up

“Technical. Tactical. Transformational.”

• Technical: Fix the plumbing. Don’t build on sand.

• Tactical: Do the work that moves traffic and leads.

• Transformational: Create systems and rituals that scale — audits, QA, reporting, team training.

Next Steps

Ask yourself:

1. What’s broken that blocks Google from finding me?

2. What problems are users trying to solve?

3. Do I have content that solves it and earns trust?

4. Do I have authority (based on backlinks, mentions, and reputation)?

5. Who’s responsible for shipping each of these?

Get clarity on these, and you’ll already outrun 90% of companies dabbling in SEO.

Now go fix your damn site.