>I have an irrational hatred towards SEO. People should stop investing money and time in trying to influence an algorithm that constantly changes and actually invest that time and money in creating better content or a better service that people actually want.

The problem with this approach is that it's entirely possible to invest a lot of time creating wonderful content people want to consume and then have it fester in obscurity because no-one gets the chance to see it.

I think this is not the case anymore. With facebook, twitter and all the other social networks people interact more easily and exchange resources and information. It's a lot easier to publish something nowadays.

Don't confuse marketing with SEO. Marketing, even if sometimes looks dodgy and it's filled with those awful magic words and phrases, even if most marketeers tend to be full of sh*t and not really know anything about what they are doing; marketing is still very important. That is the key of how to get out of obscurity, not SEO.

I think this is the biggest problem in web development nowadays, clients are really undereducated and believe SEO is a synonym for marketing. And this is encouraged by marketing companies who, to earn more business, fill the clients' heads with crap about SEO and how that is the most important thing online.

And they do this because with SEO you can't go wrong: - if the website loses traffic: "well that is Google changing their algorithm, it's an external factor, not our fault" - if the website earns traffic, even if it's because the content is good, the SEO company will try to absorb all the praise.

That's why I hate SEO.

And it will also cut down on the amount of link and content spam generated (under the hood of SEO) making things better for everyone. But this is what happens with open systems. Some people start gaming the system, others suffer as a result of it and then everyone starts doing it.

EDIT: After reading other posts in this thread, I can certainly say that I have always shared your anger towards SEO. Web is an open resource for everyone to communicate and share knowledge on. I hate when some people just come in and start abusing it for their own gain at the cost of others. Down here someone is discussing about linkwheels and link pyramids. While spamming away this shit, they don't realize that they are making this open space dirty. While they make profits from their clients and their clients make some short term profit, someone else has to do the cleanup part and waste time behind this. Its like running around in a library and filling in the shelves with junk content and advertisement. It overshadows and make it difficult to find the real content.

Yes but if you choose to stay out of it (i.e. invest in content and not bother with SEO techniques which cannot really be approved or disproved, unless you work for a search engine) you don't suffer when the algorithms change, because you don't care about it. Your clients/visitors will still come to you because they like your content/service. They will probably share you with their friends. People tend to help each other and if I find a nice website that does something I need, I will share it with my friends if i think they will benefit from it.

As for spam, I have become immune to it. I just ignore it and try to not affiliate myself with websites that generate it (i.e. I don't even bother visiting the websites, let alone purchase their service or what not). The Internet is like a big city... if you contain yourself to a certain area (where all your needs are met), you can live your whole life without going in the slums or the rough neighbourhoods.

That is true. Good content triumphs in the long run. But still, other people with crappy content and links can rank above you and take away the traffic that you deserved.