Google and SEO: The Adversarial and Evolutionary Tale

Apr 6, 2021 - 7:51 am 10 by
Filed Under Google

Google Signals Optimize Indicator

The other day I saw Paul Haahr, a Google Search engineer vet, retweet something shared by Daphne Keller, former Google Search lawyer, who shared Facebook VP's Nick Clegg Medium piece named You and the Algorithm: It Takes Two to Tango. With me so far? Anyway, the tweet from Daphne Keller "we will reward this behavior until you adapt your business and get too good at it, and then we will punish it" caught my attention. Paul Haahr explained "The idea here about adversarial/evolutionary behavior is one I've thought about a lot over the years. One interesting aspect of it being evolutionary is that intent doesn't really matter – it happens because certain behaviors are rewarded."

Here is the tweet, I 100% recommend you click on it, and scroll up and read through the whole summary. When you are done with that, keep reading below.

So when I that Paul Haahr tweeted the above tweet, I asked him for his thoughts on this cycle of a search engine coming up with a way to reward behavior and then having later to punish it because SEOs figured it out... Paul took some time to respond but his tweets are super insightful. Here they are:

I did ask Paul to expand on this last tweet and this is what he said:

Here is his response:

I do not want to add any commentary around what was written here because I think I might misstate something or potentially take some of the words out of context. But I found these responses from Paul to be super interesting and thought you'd all like to see this.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Now Offers Additional Review After Appeal Is Denied

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

EU Searchers Complaining About Google Maps Features Changes Related To DMA

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Showing Fewer Sitelinks Within Search

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:11 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 15, 2024

Mar 15, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Previous Story: Google Related Searches With Text Icon Near Graphic Icon