A critical look at the SEO industry: users complain that Google isn't as useful anymore, some experts complain it's harder to game Google's algorithm, and more

As the public begins to believe Google isn't as useful anymore, what happens to the cottage industry of search engine optimization experts …

The Verge 2023-11-02 Amanda Chicago Lewis

Context & Ripple Effects

Google's search-reputation problems predate this moment, including earlier concerns about unreliable and disturbing results. The newer tension is that the same optimization ecosystem meant to help businesses be found has been tied to an SEO arms race that flooded results with low-value text.

The story captures a conflict at the center of Google-dependent publishing: users want more useful results while SEO specialists lose reliable ways to influence ranking. Related coverage later traces how websites reshaped themselves around Google's algorithms, underscoring why changes in search quality reach beyond Google itself.

First-order effects

Google users and search-dependent businesses face a less predictable discovery experience: users report weaker utility, while SEO practitioners report fewer effective levers for influencing rankings.
SEO agencies and publishers built around ranking tactics must contend with a harder-to-game algorithm, raising the value of approaches that can withstand ranking changes rather than exploit them.

Second-order effects

As manipulative tactics become less dependable, competition among publishers can shift from keyword and ranking tricks toward differentiated content and direct audience relationships—though Google still sets the rules for referral traffic.
Pressure on Google increases from both sides: users judge result quality, while the firms that optimize for search have less incentive to treat rankings as controllable through established tactics.

Third-order effects

If this pattern persists, search becomes a more contested distribution layer: publishers remain exposed to a platform whose quality and ranking criteria they cannot directly control.
The underlying structural issue is an adversarial feedback loop: optimization adapts to ranking signals, and search providers adjust those signals to protect usefulness, potentially changing which web business models remain viable.

The trend: This is one data point in the broader shift from SEO as a repeatable ranking playbook toward search discovery shaped by platform quality controls and increasingly fragile referral economics.

Discussion

@rustybrick Barry Schwartz on threads
I think the larger issue is that what SEO was 20 years ago is not what it is today. SEO is no longer spamming and jamming - real professionals practice SEO at major respected companies, including at The Verge. It just paints SEOs as people who spam the internet and that's reall…
@miasato.2 Mia Sato on threads
Not sure what's funnier: some of the ridiculous anecdotes in this story, or the extremely bad energy coming from SEO people in response to a piece that is not just fair but offers a lot for all of us to chew on: https://www.theverge.com/...
@soupsoup Anthony De Rosa on threads
I've worked with some great SEO practitioners and I felt like this article did a disservice to them. Yes, there's plenty of people who use SEO for evil, but I've seen firsthand many who just want to make it easier to help people find the right information they want. …
@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
SEO has a culture, and today I'm learning that SEOs do not love it when anyone talks about that culture https://www.theverge.com/...
@alexandregiess Alex Giess on threads
The better question would be how much traffic the how-to section generates and whether it is the same audience Verge caters to or another one?
@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
Jokes aside, Amanda and I spent a delightful hour talking to Matt Cutts about the early days of Google and SEO for this piece and I found myself nostalgic for the web that was more than once
@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
I am desperately trying to understand this specific criticism and utterly failing
@mariyadelano Mariya Delano on threads
You're joking, right? The irony of sentences like “nearly everyone hates SEO and the people who do it for a living: the practice seems to have successfully destroyed the illusion that the internet was ever about anything other than selling stuff.” RIGHT NEXT TO their list of “M…
@mariyadelano Mariya Delano on threads
It took me a second to open this article, I initially just saw some fun snippets with Lily Ray. But wow... what's up with all this judgment? Why is @verge acting so much holier-than-thou as if their own site doesn't do SEO or include engagement baiting tactics? …
@geekinchief Avram Piltch on x
Don't agree with this story: “the people who ruined the Internet.” SEO experts like @lilyraynyc and @glenngabe are doing important work helping people get their quality content seen. And everyone who publishes on the Internet wants that. https://www.theverge.com/...
@lilyraynyc Lily Ray on x
Also, I *wish* the average person knew enough about SEO to think we're the people ruining the internet. 9 out of 10 people I meet have no idea what SEO even is when they ask me what I do. Still.
@aleyda Aleyda Solis on x
The contribution of SEO to The @verge and other news websites - excellent piece from @gfiorelli1 showing the key role of organic search traffic for publications like The Verge 👀👇 https://www.iloveseo.net/... [image]
@kevin_indig @kevin_indig on x
Luckily, the article gets better than this... https://www.theverge.com/... [image]
@rustybrick Barry Schwartz on x
I will say the @msamandalewis 's piece was a super entertaining read (hear old stories from old friends) but it describes SEOs from 20 years ago, not what SEOs do today - it is a different world in search today
@aleyda Aleyda Solis on x
Today, in SEO. 1) Not a day without drama eh? 🫠🙈 2) I'm sad that despite the maturity of our industry, the focus on user search experience in the last few years, a journalist decided to take such a negative angle. 3) wonder how she works with the SEO of the Verge 🙈
@dannysullivan Danny Sullivan on x
The Verge had an article today on SEO. I got mentioned a fair bit. I wanted to share some of my personal thoughts about that (along with apologies to anyone who I might have made feel that I — and Google Search — aren't humble about the task of improving search and the...
@dr_pete Dr. Pete Meyers on x
Naturally, I published an even-handed (mostly, IMO) research study about Google on the same day someone posted a controversial hit-piece on the industry. Also, something about alligators.
@seocounseling John McAlpin on x
If you've read @TheVerge piece trashing SEO by @msamandalewis, then it's clear she doesn't actually understand SEO. In fact she left out several interviews she conducted because it didn't fit her narrative. What's even funnier, is that The Verge has so much affiliate content.
@lilyraynyc Lily Ray on x
I spent a long time explaining how there is a spectrum of SEO approaches and not all of us are snake oil salesmen. But that part didn't make it into the article, it seems 😅
@lilyraynyc Lily Ray on x
BTW, here are some alternate article headlines that could have been written, based on the things I said in the Verge interview that were left out: - How the SEO industry has evolved and matured over the years - Why SEOs have a bad reputation and why it's largely inaccurate 1/3
@wexler Nu Wexler on x
Excellent @mattcutts anecdote: “Several SEOs described trying to get Cutts to drink at conferences so he would ‘spill secrets,’ as one put it, but what generally ended up happening was that all the SEOs would get drunk instead.” https://www.theverge.com/... [image]
@teamamittiwari Amit Tiwari on x
.@verge article on SEO is like a Hollywood movie on India. Colorful, long, feels well-researched and yet completely inaccurate!
@lilyraynyc Lily Ray on x
I definitely used “thought leader” semi-ironically when I said it out loud but hey, makes for a good story I guess 😅😅 [image]
@raymartinezseo Ray Martinez on x
I'm not going to link to The Verge post, but it's quite clear that the journalist has no idea that she, herself, is doing SEO. I think she would have been better served interviewing her own SEO team and how they have shaped the internet.
@rebekah_creates Rebekah Edwards on x
Fascinating take on an outside look into the SEO industry feat. the incredible wisdom of @lilyraynyc... I had no idea we were so hated! 😂 https://www.theverge.com/...
@debramastaler Debra Mastaler on x
This started out fine until it started bashing @dannysullivan The entire SEO industry owes Danny a debt of gratitude, he pushed for SES & started SMX, both gave hundreds of people a stage. 1/2 https://www.theverge.com/...
@cyrusshepard @cyrusshepard on x
The SEO world is SO MUCH BIGGER than the mostly icky one described in today's Verge article. It's millions of small business owners. It's the restaurant serving a mean gnocch. It's the liberal arts college in Iowa. It's the non-profit working with kids It's a lot of good people
@blairmacgregor Blair MacGregor on x
The author seems like she went in with a POV and came out with a more nuanced understanding of the business and the broader challenges of categorizing digital information in 2023, beyond just Search. I think it encapsulates the duality of SEO as an industry (white & black hat)...
@lilyraynyc Lily Ray on x
Also, believe it or not, myself and the companies I have worked for have chosen not to take on various SEO projects that we felt would - wait for it - contribute to ruining the internet
@rustybrick Barry Schwartz on x
Well this piece is now going to be seen by a lot more folks outside of SEOs 😔
@duaneforrester Duane Forrester on x
For the record, SEO's aren't pirates. Nor have I attended conferences in Hawaii or Barbados. 😉 Interesting wrap up that someone who is an actual former criminal...is staying away from SEO now. Huge article here. Grab coffee. Drink carefully. https://www.theverge.com/...
@jane_seidel Jane Seidel on x
This entire piece was really interesting, especially having worked in multiple newsrooms, handling a lot of SEO headlines and trying to figure out how to get the algorithm to smile upon Journalism https://www.theverge.com/... [image]
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