The curse of SEO

blogging

seo

Discover the hidden challenges of SEO, effective tools, and strategies to track changes and recover from setbacks, while navigating the complexities of search engine optimization.

Author

kareem

Published

July 31, 2024

Definition: SEO is optimizing your website pages to appear in the top results of search engines like Google and Bing.
- Why is this important? It makes you visible to more people who are interested in what you provide—products, services, news, etc.
- Enough of the basics. I assume you already know what SEO is about. Now, let’s explore a darker side of being involved in SEO.
How to Track Your Changes
- Since SEO revolves around ranking, how do you track your position?
- There are multiple tools I enjoy using, such as:
  - I love to manually search keywords and track their ranks myself! :)
    - I do this often when I need a break at the gym or during study breaks.
  - SEMrush
    - I use it to check domain authority, organic keywords, and traffic increase.
    - Seeing green in increased Ref. Domains and Authority Score brings joy.
    - I don’t use it for anything else! :)
  - Ranking Math
    - Say hi to the overrated WordPress SEO plugin “Ranking Math SEO”
    - It claims to simplify content optimization with built-in suggestions based on widely-accepted practices.
    - I use Rankmath Pro on a website I manage, showing impressions, total keywords, average position, and clicks. GSC offers all this for free!
    - This post isn’t about Rankmath; that’s for another time. In short:
      - AI tools
      - AMP
      - Analysis from Google Analytics
      - Instant indexing
      - Backlinks count
      - Local SEO
      - News sitemap
      - Podcasts
      - Schema
      - SEO analysis
      - Sitemap
      - Video Sitemap
      - WooCommerce
      - Google Web Stories
    - None of these significantly impact SEO and ranking; there are other effective methods.
    - What matters most to me with Rankmath is:
      - Top 5 performing posts
      - Other keywords
    - I mainly use Rankmath for its focus keyword section in each article.
  - Mangools
    - My preferred tool! Its UI/UX is excellent, and it’s fast and efficient unlike other tools.
    - With the free account, I get:
      - 5 keyword researches daily
      - 8 SERP checks
      - 1,000 backlink analyses
      - Domain profile checks for 2 domains daily
    - For Arabic, its keyword ideas aren’t as good.
  - Google Search Console
    - A free tool by Google offering most SEO tools’ functionalities for free and accurately.
    - You get:
      - Performance of your website for any keyword at any time in any region!
      - Page indexing status
      - Backlink analysis
      - Page experience and more
    - You might notice a recurring theme:
      - Charts
      - Changing numbers everywhere, numbers galore!
  - Neil Patel
    - Rank tracking
    - SEO opportunities
    - Site audit
    - Keyword research
    - Traffic estimation
    - Backlinks
  - Keyword Tool
    - For Arabic, it provides the most related suggested keywords, though many aren’t quite relevant.
  - GuinRank
    - New and more tailored for Arabic, gaining power.
    - I use its content and keyword tools for Arabic, providing helpful recommendations and statistics for choosing useful keywords.
  - Moz
    - They even blocked my IP -__-
Starting to Lose!
- What’s going wrong? I hate losing after investing time, money, and mental health into something. If you’re like me, SEO can be crushing.
- “SEO is like gambling” ~ Kareem

Losing Backlinks
- Spam backlinks (like Khamsat, Fiverr, and Upwork)—most are harmful.
- PBN Network
  - This service claims safe PBNs for backlinks from Web 2.0 blogs, profiles, social bookmarking, social likes/shares, etc. I tried it, and none appeared in GSC after 3 months; worse, my site’s rank dropped.
- Manually Added Backlinks
  - This package offers 70 PR10 backlinks from foreign websites, 60 Arabic guest posts, and 10 EDU backlinks, etc.
  - It worked to some extent, but the impact was minimal. Four backlinks from specific places helped more than these services.
- Other services are mostly spam backlinks; some guest posts might help, but aim for real backlinks spaced out from related sites.
Losing Ranking
- This month, a home services website I manage improved from 65th to 9th in rankings, then disappeared, and later ranked 40th, etc.
- This cycle repeats—a page gains rank, then drops.
- It’s stressful; don’t check daily. Weekly (or every 2-3 weeks) is less stressful and gives fairer results, focusing on what’s important.
What’s Going Wrong?
- Watching page changes from these tools is like social media’s new “like” button!
- My mind loves the green and red numbers.
- Ultimately, most analyses aren’t critical. Whether 23rd or 80th, if not in the top 5, what’s the use? Daily checks yield nothing; reaching top 5 goes unnoticed until notifications and calls confirm it.
- If SEO is your sole income source, it’s a tough job—even though it can make you a millionaire sometimes.
How to Recover
- Here’s what helped me recover from this addiction:
- Create barriers for easy access:
  1. Separate Google accounts/tabs into another browser profile. Using Brave or Bing makes this easy.
  2. Remove bookmarked tabs for these tools and clear browsing history.
  3. Use extensions to block these sites; Chrome Store has many offering motivational quotes.
- Delete Chrome and YouTube from mobile using ADB.
- Move tool emails to spam except weekly updates from Mangools and GSC.

Final Thoughts!
- As a programmer, I initially thought a fast website and quality content were key in SEO. I later learned that choosing keywords and acquiring backlinks are crucial.
- A nice Arabic book which will give you true information about SEO دليلك إلي تحسين محركات البحث
- Feel free to DM on Linkedin
- Ultimately, backlinks boil down to how many you buy and from whom.
- منصة صناعة المحتوي العربي