SEO strategies degraded Google Search by optimizing for algorithms not humans

Evidence

AI slop further established a growing feeling that the internet was getting worse with every passing day. Google Search, once synonymous with precision, was “broken,” partly because search optimization strategies pushed content away from actual human needs. Every online recipe featured thousands of extra words to satisfy Google’s algorithm before listing the ingredients and instructions. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 701

Categorization

• SHARE: The recipe observation — thousands of extra words before ingredients — is relatable enough to share casually, though not as a single-line fact.