#023: SEO is a Scam - What You Need to Know in 2026

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SEO is a scam. What you need to know in 2026, search engine optimization or SEO is often pitched as a mystical art requiring constant investment in management. Marketers frequently claim they can optimize your website to secure the top spot in search results, promising endless traffic and leads. But let's break this down. Is SEO really a golden goose that only specialized marketers can woo. SEO is simpler than ever. First off, search engines are smarter. Truth is SEO isn't as difficult or necessary as it used to be. As search engines become smarter, they are less dependent on keyword tinkering and meta descriptions, and therefore, not worth trying to game. Search engines rely less on keywords and more on intent, which means the days of keyword stuffing are behind us, thankfully. Number two, Google's search is crowded with ads and ai. Google used to show a maximum of two ads at the top of each search. Now a user is likely to see AI results followed by a full page of ads. This means that even if you reach the top result of organic search, you may still be on the second or third page making you basically irrelevant. Number three, direct traffic and time on site matter Most. Two of the most weighted measures search engines used to prioritize sites are direct traffic. In other words, how often people go straight to your website and time on site, how long do they stay there? These measures indicate relevance and trust. By creating an impactful customer bonding campaign and answering questions, customers are thinking of you can positively impact your ranking more than regular SEO tweaks. So if you do hire someone to help with your SEO, ensure number one, choose your keywords wisely and do so before you start. Your SEO person should show you a list of keywords they're trying to improve before you contract with them. This allows you to filter out the irrelevant ones. An example of this, I was working with an office furniture company who primarily sold cubicles to businesses. Their SEO firm was bragging about how much they were increasing their keyword ranking, but when you dig into the details, the areas that they were ranking were with terms like filing cabinets. Now sure, they sold filing cabinets, but they didn't actually want to sell them. They were basically no profit and people who were buying filing cabinets rarely needed cubicle solutions. Rather they needed businesses that needed cubicles who then may end up needing filing cabinets. Does that make sense? Keywords are of vital importance to know ahead of time. Number two, don't overpay for light traffic keywords. Owning a keyword is only helpful if people are actually searching for it. Too Often I see businesses pay SEO companies hand over fist to improve their standing on keywords with only a few hundred searches a month in most cases. This is a vanity expense. Number three, know your competition. Your pool of competitors for keywords is much larger than your direct competitors. If you're a plumber, eyeing the word toilet. Know that other plumbers, toilet manufacturers, interior designers, and potty mouth comedians and anyone who's wanting porta-potties are also vying to own that word. Remember, your limited capital will likely not move the needle against businesses with deep pockets. Number four, don't keyword stuff your homepage. SEO companies are still recommending businesses rewrite their homepage using their desired keywords, ad nauseum. They seem to have forgotten that. Your goal is to make money, not just get people to the homepage. Make your homepage easy for the customer to read and navigate instead of trying to game search engines. In other words, site speed tagging, all of that has some value, but SEO today is more set it and forget it than a mystical reoccurring ordeal. Marketing firms know this too. Many of my clients work with other digital marketing firms, and they ask us to assess their SEO. Our first request is for a list of SEO changes made over the last three to six months. Nine out of 10 times no changes have been made. This is why SEO might be worth paying a couple of hundred dollars per month for, but certainly not thousands.