About the author · in organic search since 2008
Mykhailo Oplakanets aka Werter
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Expertise
An SEO specialist working in organic search since 2008. His main professional focus is competitive niches, affiliate and iGaming, Technical SEO, content systems, links, multi-domain projects, international search and automation.
Over the years he has moved from hands-on SEO to Senior, Lead and Head roles: building strategies, launching and scaling sites, and working on migrations, indexing, Search Console, log files, content, links and SEO processes for teams. A particular interest is systems that reduce manual work: APIs, Python, SQL, automated checks, page generation and quality control.
He has spoken at industry SEO events, including SEMPRO, NaZapad, Content Marketing Day and SEMPRO Club. He has worked on products and projects across many niches, but most of his experience comes from places where the SERP is competitive, mistakes are expensive and results are easy to verify with numbers.
This book is an attempt to capture not “the right answers in SEO” but a way of thinking that survives interface changes, updates and new labels. If after reading it you more often ask the data the right question rather than just working through a checklist faster, the book has done its job.
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Why I wrote this book
I started doing SEO in 2008. Since then SERPs, algorithms, tools, link-building methods, content formats and even what we consider search have all changed. But one problem has stayed constant: the industry loves simple explanations of complex systems.
Once it was “200 ranking factors”, then LSI, TF-IDF, E-E-A-T as a formula, Core Web Vitals as a universal key to the top. Now the list includes GEO, LLMO, content specially adapted for AI, llms.txt and dozens of new rules that often appear before any data that could confirm them.
I do not think AI has changed nothing. It has changed a great deal. One query can turn into a series of sub-queries. The user can get an answer before the click. A site can be used as a source without holding a familiar position in the classic SERP. Part of informational demand is now served by a generative interface. Measuring visibility has become harder.
But it does not follow that SEO has started from scratch. A page still has to be discovered. It still has to be fetched over HTTP, rendered, correctly canonicalized and indexed. The system still has to understand what the document is about, match it to an information need, evaluate the source and decide whether to show it or use it in an answer. That is why the foundation of this book is not a set of AI hacks but the full path information takes through a search engine.
The second motive is simpler. I was missing a Ukrainian book on SEO that you open not for motivation or basic definitions, but in the middle of work. When you need to untangle a cluster of canonical URLs. When half a template drops out of the index after a migration. When GSC shows stable rankings and fewer clicks. When the team wants to generate 200,000 pages and asks whether it is enough to simply open them to Googlebot.
So this book is deliberately technical. It contains SQL, regex, APIs, server logs, data models, formulas, diagrams, examples of mistakes and fixes. But being technical is not the goal in itself. Every chapter should answer one question: what practical advantage will a strong SEO gain from these pages?
I also do not want to pretend that the market consists only of safe practices that follow search engine guidelines. Affiliate, expired domains, paid links, PBNs, redirects, parasite SEO and other tactics exist. They need to be understood as well as Google’s official guidance. But understanding the mechanics does not mean hiding the risk. Where a practice conflicts with spam policies, the book says so plainly.
The most important rule of this book: do not take even this book at its word. Open the source. Check the date. Test your own data. Separate fact from assumption. SEO is complex enough without adding made-up rules to it.
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