In a post I made on LinkedIn this winter, I unpacked some BAD SEO Lies, given by “SEO Professionals”.
When I started freelancing and consulting independently, I expected to spend most of my time helping clients fix outdated websites, restructure content, or explain search intent.
What I didn’t expect was to spend just as much time undoing bad advice — the kind that not only wasted the client’s money but actively harmed the site’s performance.
I’m talking about things like:
- “Just buy 200 backlinks…”
- “You don’t need much text on your homepage…”
- “Put all your keywords in H1 tags and use as many as possible…”
- “No need to worry about mobile…”
- “You will rank nr 1 in a month…”
What’s sad is that people were actually falling for this — and paying for it.
I started documenting some of the worst lies. Partly to educate, partly to process — and maybe mostly because some of it was so bad it felt like comedy.
I believe SEO is nuanced. It’s about aligning your site with real search behavior, clear intent, and the kind of structure that builds long-term trust. Building something that actually deserves to show up.
If you want to see the original post (and the “bad SEO lies” list), I’ve included it below.
Take a look and if you’ve ever been told something equally wild, I’d love to hear it.
I encountered these during my first year as an SEO consultant, and I was genuinely surprised by what people are actually selling as SEO out there.