The creator, with 16 years of SEO experience, addresses a fundamental misconception about SEO: that it's a commoditized product that can be purchased from various vendors with similar results. In reality, SEO campaigns from different agencies look completely different despite covering basics like keyword research and page title optimization. While SEO is theoretically a science (Google's algorithm is deterministic), it functions more like an art in practice because the algorithm is extremely complex, constantly changing, kept in a black box by Google, and not fully understood even by those who work on it. This complexity means SEO will never be 'solved' - practitioners rely on limited understanding, intuition from experience, and processes that seem to work reliably. SEO professionals have diverse styles: some are technical vs creative, focus on off-page vs on-page, follow or ignore Google's advice. The key distinction between successful and unsuccessful SEOs is whether they reason from first principles - developing their own working theory about how Google works - versus simply following a learned process or SOP from an agency. Process-following SEOs may deliver results short-term but will struggle when Google's algorithm changes, especially common in larger agencies that can't pivot quickly. The recommendation is to hire consultants or agencies where the strategist reasons from first principles rather than following pre-built standard operating procedures.
SEO is not a commoditized product that delivers similar results across different vendors
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If you compared SEO campaigns from 10 different agencies, they would look like 10 completely different projects
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Google's algorithm is so complex that no human fully understands it, even people working on it
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SEO will never be solved - no one will ever truly know the best thing to do to rank higher in search
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In practice, SEO functions more like an art than a science
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All top SEOs are reasoning from first principles
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SEOs who only understand processes without reasoning from first principles will do things that don't make sense long-term
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As Google's algorithm changes, process-based approaches stop working
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Larger agencies can't pivot as quickly when algorithm changes occur
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The creator's overall position toward the main topic discussed.