- Shitty SEO Advice
- Posts
- Action produces information
Hey—it's Alex.
Welcome to another edition of Sh*tty SEO Advice, where I share SEO advice that isn’t . . . sh*t. This issue takes 3 minutes to read.
I need to tell you about the dumbest thing I ever did . . . When I was 19, I bought a 50-page book on wholesaling real estate.
I didn't understand contracts or law. I had no clue about taxes. I couldn’t estimate the value of a home. Hell, I don’t think I could even spell "due diligence."
But you know what I did? I posted ads on Craigslist and started generating leads anyway (as the book told me to do).
Three weeks later, I wholesaled my first house for $5,000.
Meanwhile, my buddy spent six months "researching" and never made a dime.
There’s a beauty in ignorance and here's what I learned that completely changed how I approach SEO . . .
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DEEP DIVE
Action produces information
Most SEO professionals are analytical. Detail oriented. They want to understand every algorithm update before they make a move.
And look, that's actually smart for 70% of SEO work.
But most SEOs get it backwards:
They analyze when they should act, and act when they should analyze.
The "analysis first" situations in SEO:
Technical audits
Large-scale site migrations
Penalty-recovery strategies
For these, slow and methodical wins every time.
But then there are the "action produces information" opportunities:
Testing new keyword angles
Content topic validation
Link-building outreach variations
In the first category, mistakes are expensive. In the second, NOT acting is what's expensive.
Take my Lazy Link Building strategy. I learned it from a 30-minute presentation. The speaker couldn't cover every detail, but instead of waiting for the "complete guide," I just started publishing articles. I knew just enough information to start running with the idea.
I figured out the secret sauce by doing, not by studying.
Same with keyword research. Some of my most profitable sites came from "gut feeling" keywords. I threw up a page and let Google tell me if I was right.
Here's my favorite recent example:
I saw Kyle Roof post on Facebook that SEO Estonia was looking for speakers. I'd never spoken on a main stage before. Had zero experience. Didn't even know what makes a good presentation.
Most people would have thought: "I'm not qualified. I need to take a speaking course first. Maybe next year."
Instead I found a YouTube video on storytelling and presentations. Uploaded the transcript to Claude and spent three hours creating a basic PowerPoint with a strong story.
Then I recorded a Loom video going over my outline and sent it to Kyle's team.
Needless to say, I landed the gig and just got back from the conference, where I shared my strategies with 250+ people.
I tell the story above not to brag—quite the opposite, actually. I tell the story to illustrate that I had no idea what I was doing. But I acted anyway. And it worked.
The pattern here isn't luck. It's strategic ignorance.
The risk was they say no to my speaking pitch and I'm right where I started but no worse off. The potential reward, though, was an international speaking opportunity.
The choice was clear: act first and figure it out later.
Here's my "action vs. analysis" framework for SEO:
High risk, high impact → analysis first (technical changes, site structure, core pages)
Low risk, high learning → action first (content tests, keyword experiments, outreach tactics)
The secret is knowing which bucket your task falls into.
Look at your current to-do list and ask yourself: "Is this high risk or low risk?"
For the low-risk stuff (content ideas, keyword tests, link experiments), stop researching and start testing.
For the high-risk stuff (technical changes, site moves), analyze away.
Action produces information.