Mad Scientist Digital

Humbled to receive an OAM yesterday alongside the great man Nick Pearce. It might have our names on them, but it reflects the whole HoMie Clothing crew. Founding team, Board, staff, partners, and everyone who’s backed the mission along the way!

Humbled to receive an OAM yesterday alongside the great man Nick Pearce. It might have our names on them, but it reflects the whole HoMie Clothing crew. Founding team, Board, staff, partners, and everyone who’s backed the mission along the way!

This one's for business owners checking individual keyword rankings every morning… yes you. I thought it was time I intervened. I get it. Keywords feel tangible. They move up, they move down, they make your heart skip a beat. But tracking a single keyword every day is the digital-marketing equivalent of standing on the scales five times before breakfast. One keyword IS NOT the master key to your empire, it's the definition of madness. Search hasn’t worked that way for years. PEOPLE don’t search that way. And Google DEFINITELY doesn’t think that way. Yet here we are… hanging emotional wellbeing on whether “plumber Melbourne” moved half a position overnight. If your SEO is being done properly, you don’t rank for one keyword. You rank for hundreds. Usually thousands. Every messy, weird, human variation the internet can throw at you...that’s the whole point. Influence the topic, not the trophy phrase you decided was “the one”. So, what should you be looking at? Impressions across the landing pages you’re optimising. Engagement. Trust. Behaviour. Patterns. A much broader set of indicators... The actual signals that show your content is earning its keep, not just popping up for the one term you happen to be emotionally attached to. I’ve seen business owners threaten to fire an agency because their pet keyword dropped from #1 to #2… meanwhile their overall visibility doubled and their leads went up. But hey, that second position really felt personal. If you want to stay sane in 2026, zoom out. Look at the whole picture. Stop treating a single ranking like a mood ring for your business. Search is bigger, weirder, and far more interesting than that...especially with all of the AI shenanigans going on with algorithms these days. One keyword? Every day? Mate… 🫳 🎤 💥 Mad Scientist Digital #SEO #keywords #content

The tsunami of people in marketing saying ridiculous things like "SEO is dead", "You just need to write great content", "You just need to have a brand" - has got me thinking.... 🤔 If you've been involved in the digital space as intensely as I have for over 15 years, you've heard this song before on repeat, but lately... that scratchy record is even more broken than it's ever been. So, without snap judgements (and soap boxes) the question remains - why? Why are people in marketing saying this? AGAIN! Well, they tend to fall into 4 categories: 1. They've had very limited experience in SEO or have never actually optimised anything. I've seen a collection of branding, design, and content specialists express these opinions. Essentially not technical people, they sit more on the front end side of things. 2. They are a technical person who wants to sell you another acronym like GEO, AEO, AIO, LLMO, & SXO. And in doing so, leading with "SEO is dead" acts as click bait for them selling you the next shiny object, using FOMO scare tactics to get you to sign on to said shiny new three-letter thing. 3. Related to number 2, the 3rd category is a software company who is selling you some automated AI magic tools or bot-like Agents that can do everything for you including SEO. They are usually spraying "SEO is dead" around the place because supposedly you don't need to "do" SEO anymore, it's completely "done for you" by these wondrous automatons. 4. Probably the oldest of them all. They want to sell you Ads! Think $$$$$/month on Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads and and and... just pure traffic buying, with very little organic foundation underneath. They want you "on the drug"...with leads you have to keep on buying without earning anyone's trust first. My thoughts? Garbage. All of it. Complete and utter ignorance. As Robin Williams said in that famous class room scene in Dead Poets Society. "Rip out that page...I don't hear enough rip!" SEO is in expansion mode. The sheer amount of acronynmistic descriptors the more technical minded people in marketing are trying to add to the discipline of search engine optimisation actually makes my case for me. And, might I add - experienced SEO people who have a good command of the strategies, tactics, AND the tools - are absolute gold right now. With search changing more rapidly than it ever has you need a marketing Swiss army knife in your camp, because to do SEO well, having a 360 degree view of marketing is not negotiable. Before my passionate plea explodes LinkedIn's character limit let me leave you with this. (Hmmm I said no soap boxes. Oh well!) SEO has never been more alive. If it's in your marketing mix keep it and expand it. If it's non-existent, get amongst it and double down as soon as possible - the future of SEO is all above ground! Mad Scientist Digital Terminology *acronynmistic __feel free to use this new word in abundance...probably need to practice saying it though 🫠

The biggest lie in marketing is that results are guaranteed…like it’s some kind of vending machine. “Page 1 rankings in 30 days or your money back.” “100 quality leads guaranteed.” “10X traffic growth in a matter of weeks.” These claims are just as on the nose as those inflated case studies you see plastered across agency websites, neatly wrapped in a story of success that hides the real truth...the messy, experimental roller coaster it took to get there. Here’s how the game usually goes: 🚩 Audit the last agency. Pile on the criticism. Ignore the good parts. Emphasise how “terrible” their work was. Suddenly, the client doubts everything they’ve ever done...good and bad. 🚩 Promise the dream. Attach a guarantee. Tell them what they want to hear. Skip the part about setting realistic expectations or building a relationship built on truth. Just sign ‘em up. 🚩 Keep the illusion alive. Show green hockey sticks every month. Spin the highlights. Deflect when results don’t match the hype. Double down on the same story you sold them in the first place. And if they try to leave? Guilt them into staying. I’ve rescued countless businesses from this merry-go-round. Many of them haven't spotted the red flags early enough. They're hurting. And sometimes, they don’t even sign on with us because I tell them upfront: “There is no certainty.” “Marketing is an experiment.” “This is going to be tough.” “The wins don’t come easy.” “This could take over a year.” Marketers aren’t the only ones to blame. Businesses want to believe. They want the shortcut, the dream, the promise of certainty. But that’s the danger zone. An endless cycle of disappointment and agency-hopping, chasing magic bullets that don’t exist. There is magic. But it’s buried in the hard stuff: deeper work, consistency, collaboration, and brutal honesty. “Hard work? Really? Do I have to?” Yep. If you want to be great at this marketing thing, you do. Even if this post just nudges a few SMEs to rethink their approach before 2025 ends, it’s been worth my time. Marketing isn’t a formula. It’s a true collaboration built on trust. Mad Scientist Digital / Terminology