In my earlier career, I pushed the limits of SEO. Today, as a growth leader and venture partner, I teach founders how to win with ethical SEO that compounds—without risking their brand.
Why ethical SEO now
Google's systems and LLMs prioritize E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust. Shortcuts fade; durable moats come from helpful content, brand signals, and user satisfaction.
A practical framework
- Audience research → map questions across the funnel.
- Search intent → decide between educational pages, product pages, or tools.
- Content depth → provide outcomes, steps, and examples.
- Entity building → consistent author profile, bio, and schema.
- Measurement → track assisted conversions, not just traffic.
Tactics that work in 2025
- Build topic clusters with internal links to pillar pages.
- Use structured data (FAQ, HowTo, Product) and Person schema.
- Publish original research, calculators, or benchmark tools.
- Optimize UX signals: scroll depth, time on page, and task completion.
What to avoid
- AI-thin pages without expertise.
- Paid link schemes and doorway pages.
- Over-optimized anchors and keyword stuffing.
Closing thought
Ethical SEO is simply excellent product marketing online: understand users, solve their problems, and make it easy to trust you.