Who am I? What credentials do I have to convince you that what I have to say is worth listening to? 

Truth be told, I have no credentials. I'm just a web developer that happens to rank decently for a relatively non-competitive keyword. However, this lack of credibility makes this blog post that much more effective. How so? You're more likely to be skeptical of my advice, and skepticism is exactly what I wish to emphasize.  

Don't Blindly Follow

Based upon my interactions on SEO Forums and various SEO Blogs, SEO tends to create large bandwagons, especially amongst the entry-level SEOs. One leader will say "Article Directories are BAD!", and the newcomers take note. Soon, someone joins the forum and asks "are article directories bad?".  A newcomer is likely to reply "ARTICLE DIRECTORIES ARE TERRIBLE!" , and earn the acceptance of the leaders. I'd assert there's a 99% chance that the newcomer had never extensively tested the claim at hand, but simply echoed what an industry leader had declared. How do I know this happens in the forums? Easy: I was that know-it-all newcomer for the longest time, and I was competing against other newcomers for acceptance.

Until one amazing day.

After leaving a comment that might has well have been copied from a Search Engine Land article, a user responded

"Sounds like something you read in a book rather than something you know!"

Bulls eye. 

At that moment, I realized I was basing all my "knowledge" of SEO on forum leaders that could easily be basing their "knowledge" from some SEO Blog super-star. The lesson learned?

Don't Overestimate the Value of Someone Else's Data

You don't know how much integrity a person has when they conduct their experiments. Additionally, you don't know how well a person controls variables when conducting experiments. The most beneficial action you can take for yourself and the SEO community as a whole is to treat each SEO claim as a Hypothesis waiting to be tested. Your own experiments may very well fail to disprove the hypothesis. They can also completely decimate the hypothesis. You never know until you actually do it! So before you echo the word of an industry hot-shot, verify it for yourself. This will alleviate a LOT of the noise that exists in the SEO industry. 

Don't Underestimate the Value of Your Own Data

So you aren't Aaron Wall or Rand. Big deal! Your data is extremely valuable to the community when collected properly. No website is too small to run an experiment on. Keep a journal of every single change you make. I cannot overemphasize the importance of keeping an SEO experiment journal. It enables you to think creatively and also helps you draw stronger conclusions. If you aren't keeping a journal, start with an initial SEO evaluation of your site and START DOCUMENTING TODAY! You'll be so glad you did. There's nothing quite as satisfying as taking some of the guess work out of SEO through proper experimentation. Even reaffirming a well-established claim through your own experiments gives you a great sense of accomplishment and perspective. 

Don't be afraid to venture off on your own. Don't be afraid to question. Don't think yourself unworthy of containing industry-revolutionizing data. We're all capable of strengthening the SEO community. 

These are my hypotheses. Test them!