#8 Mistakes I Want—No, NEED You To Make ASAP
Sometimes, the best lessons don’t come from reading the “right” guide or watching yet another tutorial. They come from screwing things up and learning the hard way.
Like the time I ran a Screaming Frog crawl out of curiosity and found a heap of broken canonical tags and duplicate page titles. Just minutes earlier, I’d swapped out Rank Math for Yoast, assuming my settings would carry over.
They didn’t.
I spent an entire afternoon manually fixing tags and titles across the site.
Will I make that mistake again? No.
But these kinds of hard-won lessons? They’ve turned me into a better operator, a better problem-solver. And I want you to have that same edge.
So here’s a list of mistakes I want you to make—not because I want you to struggle, but because each of these failures comes with a lesson that will make you sharper, faster, and far more resilient so that you can earn more as a junior SEO, freelancer, consultant, in-house or enterprise search marketer.
1. Taking a live website down
Nothing will test you faster than breaking your own website.
There are so many ways to do it: updating plugins, messing up DNS settings, or even a simple tweak that crashes the menu on mobile viewports because WP Rocket decided to wreck your CSS.
When you break a site, adrenaline kicks in.
Problem-solving mode kicks in.
And you learn.
Fast.
I want you to experience this. Not because I’m a sadist, but because fixing your own mess builds resilience.
You learn to build systems to triage and prevent these disasters. For instance, I now rely on server-level backups—WordPress backups? Never again.
2. Basing decisions on monthly search volume (MSV)
Ever gone after a keyword with high search volume, ignoring one that’s perfect for your buyer but has “zero MSV”? Same here.
But monthly search volume is flawed. Most of that data comes from Google Keyword Planner—designed for PPC, not SEO.
When you rely on MSV, you’re working with skewed data. Google forces broad targeting, so keywords with low or zero MSV exist because Google won’t let advertisers bid on them.
I now chase zero MSV keywords if they match my buyer’s journey, not just because a tool says so.
Think this way, and your SEO becomes invaluable.
3. Building useless links that waste time and resources
If you haven’t bought backlinks, have you really experienced SEO?
Hear me out: I want you to buy backlinks so you can see the data and learn for yourself.
We know links matter, but the devil’s in the details:
- Which types? Guest posts? Link insertions?
- At what pace? One-time? 3 months?
- Anchor text? Referring page types?
And if you dive deep enough, you’ll find your own insights about link-building—insights that go beyond the surface-level advice because “advice” like this will cause you more damage than good.
I guess this extends beyond backlinks. More onsite content doesn’t necessarily mean better business outcomes.
4. Misunderstanding the traffic metric entirely
Sound familiar? You see tons of organic traffic and think SEO is king. So, you do the research, map the intent, publish, and wait …
What went wrong?
Many assume organic search is the main distribution channel. Here’s the truth: SEO won’t save your business. Not even marketing will.
Just because Google drives traffic doesn’t mean people are glued to Google search. Look around—where do you spend your time online? LinkedIn? YouTube? TikTok? It’s the same for everyone.
The faster you let go of Google as a catch-all traffic source, the quicker you’ll diversify. Embrace channels that keep your brand top of mind, not just a search result.
Mistakes are brutal. But these are the ones that’ll make you better.
Thanks for making it this far!
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They’re not wrong, but they’re not exactly right either.
Hello! I’m Daniel K Cheung, the author of this newsletter. In 2019, I switched careers, got a part-time job in SEO at an agency, and now, lead SEO for Adobe across APAC and Japan.
Ever since then, I’ve come to respect in-house roles, learned to roll with the challenges, and look forward to the incredible potential of B2B enterprise SEO. I want to share my journey because getting hired was a huge milestone in my career.
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