Re:How Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) rewrites the rul...
by godelski on Sunday June 01, 2025 @09:21PM
(#44155087)
I think the concept of SEO is fine. But the problem comes down to metric hacking.
Certainly you want to make your page easier to index by Google and others, but that's not the only thing that matters. You should improve your content and provide a good product to users. That's what Google intends to measure, but such a thing is actually impossible to do so accurately. So the problem comes down to this stupid cat and mouse game where sites happily shill out links that are immediate turnarounds for users.
I think this is larger than just search. We seem to just be optimizing towards whatever metric we've decided should be used. We then fool ourselves into thinking this proxy actually measures the real thing.
Certainly you want to make your page easier to index by Google and others, but that's not the only thing that matters. You should improve your content and provide a good product to users. That's what Google intends to measure, but such a thing is actually impossible to do so accurately. So the problem comes down to this stupid cat and mouse game where sites happily shill out links that are immediate turnarounds for users.
I think this is larger than just search. We seem to just be optimizing towards whatever metric we've decided should be used. We then fool ourselves into thinking this proxy actually measures the real thing.