By Eman Nabih, COO
This article is not about claiming that I’m the one and only SEO expert out there. I consider my experience moderate. This article was written to share three things I’ve learned:
- No one owns the absolute facts about SEO.
- SEO cannot be built on theories – only on practice and real tests.
- No one can claim what really works unless they can prove it.
The Stage of Ignorance
When I joined internet marketing, I knew nothing. I started learning by reading what other marketers wrote. I was fascinated by all the “SEO Experts” and their articles.
From what I read, SEO seemed like a piece of cake. Just follow the experts’ “10 Essential Steps” and “50 Ways to SEO Success.” They wrote with such confidence that I believed they somehow controlled Google.
At that time, I was ignorant because I was just reading theories without testing a single one. I was repeating what experts said like a parrot, with no clue if any of it actually worked.
The Stage of Questions
It took me a long time to realize that becoming a specialist requires practice, not just listening to lectures. I started asking uncomfortable questions:
What makes someone an “expert”? The number of theories they invent? The hundreds of posts they publish? Or real experiments that prove what works?
Does anyone control Google? Can any SEO agency guarantee that following their steps will give you stable top rankings forever?
Why don’t experts mention how long success takes? They claim their steps lead to certain success, but can’t say if it takes 3 months or 2 years. How can they be certain about the outcome but not the timeline?
Why do experts say cheap SEO is bad SEO? Since when is quality measured by how much you charge? I know expensive agencies that milk clients monthly while delivering nothing. We only charge when we deliver results.
These questions led me to start my own tests.
The Stage of Testing
Test #1: Breaking All the Rules
I created a personal website about health and fitness. A trainer friend wrote unique articles. I did everything according to Google’s guidelines and the experts’ advice.
Result after 18 months: Nothing. No traffic, no backlinks, no visibility. Despite following all the rules.
Then I decided to do the opposite. I deliberately turned the site into everything Google supposedly hates:
- Duplicate content – copied and pasted from other sites
- Broken links and images
- No updates since 2014
- Everything that should result in a penalty
Result after 4 months: Good daily traffic. 99.7% from Google search. Many comments and messages. Health and fitness keywords reaching top positions. Shares and followers on social media.
Result after 6 years: Still no penalty. Still getting traffic.
This result shocked me. I realized what the experts forgot to mention: the importance of the topic matters more than content quality. Health and fitness are things people constantly search for. They don’t know or care about SEO rules – they just want answers.
Test #2: Doing Everything Right
My second test was my personal website about foreign policy and terrorism. I put my heart into it for four years. I did everything correctly according to Google and the experts.
Comparing the results of both sites:
- The “lousy” fitness site got more traffic than the optimized political site
- People search constantly for fitness – they don’t care as much about politics unless it directly affects them
- Both sites got traffic primarily from Google search
- Both reached top positions for relevant keywords
The political site earned 3,694 natural backlinks without any link building effort. Through working on it, I learned social media, research skills, and how to attract the right audience.
What I Learned
Topic importance drives traffic. Not content quality alone. A subject people care about will get searched regardless of how “optimized” the content is.
Who visits matters more than how many. A lawyer might get thousands of visitors, but only one or two might become real clients. Quality over quantity.
There are no “10 Commandments” of SEO. Much of what experts claim is correct, but no one owns the absolute facts. Lousy websites sometimes outperform optimized ones. Exceptions exist. Rules are not guarantees.
Practice beats theory. You cannot learn SEO by reading articles. You learn by testing, observing, and drawing your own conclusions.
The Conclusion
This test isn’t an invitation to break Google’s rules. It’s a demonstration that no one – including me – can claim to know exactly what works in every situation.
Be skeptical of anyone who speaks in absolutes about SEO. Test things yourself. The results of your own experiments are worth more than a thousand expert articles.
Originally published January 2017. Reformatted for clarity December 2025.
Love this article! So passionate and honest. Great job.