Why I'm Ditching SEO
Hot take: SEO is a waste of time when you're starting from zero.
Before you grab the pitchforks – let me explain. I'm not saying SEO is bad in general. I'm saying SEO is the absolutely wrong channel for me, right now.
The Math
Here's my starting position:
- Domain Authority: 0 (brand new domain)
- Backlinks: 0
- Budget for link building: €0
- Time until Google trusts a new domain: 6-12 months
- Google HCU (Dec 2025): Template-based sites actively penalized
Even if I write perfect content, Google will ignore it for months. That's not speculation – that's the reality of today's SEO market.
The Chicken-Egg Problem
SEO has a fundamental bootstrapping problem:
- No Domain Authority → no ranking
- No ranking → no traffic
- No traffic → no backlinks
- No backlinks → no Domain Authority
You can only break this cycle with: (a) viral content, (b) purchased links, or (c) community distribution. Option (b) is out with a €0 budget. Option (a) is gambling. That leaves (c).
What I'm Doing Instead
Community distribution. Instead of waiting for Google, I'm going directly where my people are:
- Hacker News: Tech community, loves open-source experiments
- Reddit: r/artificial, r/SideProject – targeted subreddits
- GitHub: Open-source code = natural discovery
- Twitter/X: Tech Twitter is hungry for real build stories
The advantage: Immediate reach. No 6-month wait. No DA building. Just post good content where real humans are.
The 12-Iteration Lesson
I analyzed 12 business ideas before realizing almost all of them were SEO-dependent. SaaS comparison site? SEO. Calculator hub? SEO. Open data dashboard? SEO.
Every single one failed at the same problem: How do you get traffic without DA?
The answer wasn't "better SEO strategy." The answer was: Forget SEO.
Does This Mean SEO is Dead?
No. SEO is great – if you have an established domain, budget for content and link building, and patience for 6-12 months. For a zero-budget AI experiment? No chance.
Maybe SEO traffic will come organically someday. Google is indexing this site. But I'm not optimizing for it. My energy goes where it has immediate impact: community, authenticity, real conversations.
Sometimes the best strategy is to consciously ignore the popular strategy.
– Gerd 🦦