How SEO Actually Works

What a Former Search Engine Engineer Wants You to Know About Ranking in 2025 and Beyond

If you’ve ever wondered why some businesses dominate Google while others struggle to be found, you’re about to learn the truth. Not the latest “hack” or algorithm update—but the foundational principles that have powered search engines since the beginning and will still be valid 20 years from now.

This isn’t theory. This comes from Dennis Yu, a former search engine engineer who was there when the guts of the internet was built.

Forget Everything You Think You Know About SEO

Here’s the reality: underneath all the noise about Google updates, AI optimization, and social media algorithms lies something much simpler—the information layer.

Whether it’s Google, ChatGPT, TikTok, or any other platform, they’re all trying to do the same thing: connect pieces of information together and determine what’s trustworthy.

The Building Block of Everything: Entities

An entity is simply a noun. It’s a thing. It could be:

• You
• Your business
• A restaurant
• A park
• A person

Think of entities like atoms in a molecule. Google’s Knowledge Graph is essentially a massive database of these “nouns”—and every entity has a unique identifier called a KGMID (Knowledge Graph Machine ID).

The magic happens in how these entities connect to each other.

Why Connections Matter More Than You Think

Here’s where it gets interesting. Google, ChatGPT, and every major algorithm operate on a simple principle:

“You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

If you’re trying to rank for “pest control marketing” and you’re connected to other entities in the pest control world—people who go to Pest World conferences, who are featured in industry publications, who run successful pest control companies—then Google assumes you’re probably legitimate too.

It’s the same logic you use when looking at someone on LinkedIn. If they’re from your city and share connections with people you trust, you’re more inclined to trust them.

This is exactly how search engines think.

The Three Layers of Digital Authority

Layer 1: The Entity (The Skeleton)

This is your business or personal brand as a “thing” in the Knowledge Graph. It needs to be clearly defined and connected to other relevant entities.

Layer 2: Entity Objects (The Muscle)

These are your digital properties:

• Your website (owned property)
• YouTube channel
• Facebook page
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Google Business Profile
• Twitter/X

Think of these as “internal citations” that expand who you are. The more entity objects that consistently tell the same story, the stronger your entity becomes.

Layer 3: Content (The Meat on the Bones)

Content lives on entity objects. A blog post lives on your website. A video lives on YouTube. A review lives on Google Business Profile.

Here’s the critical mistake most businesses make: They create content in one place and leave it there.

A podcast that only lives on Spotify? Only Spotify can see it. A video only on YouTube? You might rank within YouTube, but not in Google Search, Maps, AI Overviews, or anywhere else.

The Repurposing Imperative

Social networks are “walled gardens.” When you’re logged into Facebook, you see content based on your connections and preferences. But algorithms like Google can only see what’s publicly visible.

If your best content is trapped inside these gardens, you need to liberate it.

This is why repurposing isn’t optional—it’s essential. When you take a YouTube video and also:

• Embed it on your website
• Create a blog post summarizing it
• Share clips on Instagram and TikTok
• Mention it in a podcast

…you’re creating corroborating sources that all point back to your entity. When ChatGPT or Google comes looking for “Who is the best HVAC technician in Chicago?”—they’ll find multiple places agreeing on the answer.

The Trust Equation: Power + Relevance

Getting a backlink from a high domain authority website isn’t enough. You need two things:

1. Power (the strength of the entity linking to you)
2. Relevance (topical alignment with what you do)

A DR78 website from India talking about unrelated topics? Worthless.

A DR45 website that’s deeply connected to your industry and location? Gold.

Think of it this way: If you’re an HVAC company in Chicago, you need:

• Connections to other Chicago businesses
• Connections to the HVAC industry
• Content about Chicago-specific topics
• Engagement from people in your market

A link from a romance novel blog (no matter how powerful) won’t help you rank for “AC repair Chicago.”

Trust Signals Are Everywhere

Links were the original trust signal because websites were all that existed in the 1990s. But now we have many more:

• Google Business Profile reviews (probably worth “10 points”)
• Facebook likes (maybe “1 point”)
• Comments (“3 points”)
• Shares (“13 points”—research confirms this)
• Video watch time
• Podcast listens
• Mentions and tags
• Real engagement from real people

Everything that’s connected to you and has trust aggregates into your entity’s overall power.

The depth of connection matters. It’s not enough to take a picture with an industry celebrity. Google wants to see ongoing, meaningful connections—podcasts together, co-authored content, mutual engagement over time.

The Digital Mirror Principle

Here’s the most important concept to understand:

Digital marketing is a mirror that reflects what’s already happening in the real world.

If you’re a chiropractor who cracks 140 backs a day, has loyal repeat customers, and a great reputation in your community—but your website is weak, you’re not collecting reviews, and your social media is dead—your digital mirror is cracked.

What’s actually happening is amazing. But the reflection doesn’t show it.

Digital marketing is mirror polishing. We’re not creating something that doesn’t exist. That’s lying. We’re making what already exists visible to algorithms.

And here’s the flip side: If your business does bad work and has bad reviews, no amount of SEO tricks will overcome that. More digital marketing just amplifies the problem—like going from a 50-watt amplifier to a 200-watt amplifier when you can’t sing.

The Hierarchy of What Matters

Stop chasing tools. Here’s what actually matters, in order:

1. Quality Ingredients (the business itself—great work, happy customers, real expertise)
2. Process & Expertise (the people executing the strategy)
3. Tools (ChatGPT, WordPress, analytics software, etc.)

Most digital marketing noise focuses on #3 because tool companies want to sell you things. But the truth is: if your ingredients are good, a competent person following a solid process can do the work without 30 years of search engine engineering experience.

What This Means for Local Businesses

If you’re a local service business, ask ChatGPT or Google: “Who is the best [your service] in [your city]?”

If you’re not in the top three results, it’s because your entity doesn’t have enough visible connections where they should be:

• Local connections (other businesses in your area)
• Industry connections (others in your trade)
• Trust signals (reviews, testimonials, certifications)
• Content that demonstrates expertise

The signals might exist in real life—you might know everyone in your industry, attend every conference, have 20 years of experience—but if it’s not visible digitally, Google can’t see it.

The Path Forward

Understanding the Knowledge Graph changes everything. When you get it right:

• You show up in Google Search
• You appear in Map results
• You get featured in AI Overviews
• You rank in ChatGPT responses
• You build a Knowledge Panel

All from the same underlying work.

Build your entity. Create entity objects. Produce content. Repurpose it everywhere. Connect with relevant people in your industry and location. Generate real engagement and trust signals.

This isn’t about tricks. It’s about being legitimately good at what you do—and making sure the digital world can see it.