These SEO alchemists can spot a technophobe a mile away, and they use this knowledge to their benefit. They speak in tongues about schema, UTMs, and link juice. They tell tall tales of the ancient one, RankBrain, and ask merely for monthly financial sacrifices to appease the God of Google.

Anyway, I think I’ve taken that metaphor as far as it can go! My point is this: a lot of marketers play on the perceived complexity of SEO and use that to bewilder businesses into working with them, which isn’t a good look for the SEO industry as a whole.

On the flipside of the ‘dark art’ of SEO is the perception that anyone can do it: that anyone with a step-by-step instruction manual and a bit of time can do everything you need to rank well in local search.