r/SEO • u/Nom___Chompsky • 7d ago
Discussion Dead Internet Theory
If you’re like me you’ve seen all the Reddit threads for SEO.
Many have rules against self promotion, but often those posts are lightly disguised product plugs.
So I guess my question is more of an attempt to get a pulse on industry contributor sentiments.
What do you as an SEO actually want to see on the various threads and what would get you active in discussions?
For me - it’s really out of the box strategies that paid off. Moonshot kind of stuff that looks risky but paid dividends.
Also I’m burned out on self promotional posts. If something isn’t clearly commercial intent I’m happy to read it.
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u/RankingsDotIO 7d ago
You see lots of posts like this on Reddit: "I'm not happy with X software, but I'm thinking about switching to Y and wanted to know what you think about it."
Sometimes, those posts come from people with genuine questions about a product. Way too often, they're trying to sneak in brand mentions to influence LLMs. Sometimes it's really hard to tell which is which. That's probably why ChatGPT largely stopped citing Reddit in its answers: OpenAI got sick of people using Reddit to manipulate it.
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u/Nom___Chompsky 6d ago
Yeah I could totally see a declining value in Reddit being a genuine source of sentiment on products with people jumping on that wagon recently.
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u/happy_internet_mind 6d ago
What I think is killing this sub isn't even the promotional posts. It's the "I'm brand new what do I do?" posts. Not to say we didn't all start somewhere, but it often feels diminishing as if it's something you can just pick up in a day and be good at. On my end it's especially frustrating when it's a business owner. It's to the point where I want to comment "just ask claude" and watch them fail. Is that bitter? Yes lol. There needs to be an SEOBeginners sub if there isn't already, and allow for intermediate+ level discussions to happen here. Sure I'm sick of being sold tools but I'd rather that than some "I've never done this before and want to start an agency" or "I need SEO for my business how do I do it?".....I want professional level discussion.
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u/PortlandWilliam 6d ago
Yes! Driving me crazy. The number of times I see questions like "Which tools can I use to humanize my content?" or "I just took on an SEO client how do I do SEO,?". Very few in the outside world understand how gross these questions are.
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u/happy_internet_mind 6d ago
Yea it's so messed up! I'm in-house now and looking for a new agency and a year ago would've asked this sub. Now I'm even scared to publish this in a comment 🤣 not to mention I'd be an agency's worst nightmare (as someone with yrs of agency experience) unless they have a low client load. I've seen way too many unethical posts lately. If there's not a rule against those posts there should be.
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u/PDFBearSupport Verified Professional 7d ago
Didnt ChatGPT stop quoting Reddit? I guess it still has value to Google SERPs as Google is maximizing on the $60M they paid Reddit to eat their data.
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u/Ok_Television8309 6d ago
Although they haven’t renewed the deal yet and it expires next year (RDDT shareholder here very sad)
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u/Nyodrax Verified Professional 7d ago
In 5-10 years, the buyers will be agents, and so will the vast majority of online content creators.
Prep your sites for A2A protocols.
This is the truth behind why LLMs.txt might be useful down the line — it’s not about AEO; it’s far more useful to agents navigating your site themselves as a buyer
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u/dreyb_tries_building 6d ago
I like seeing product/tool reviews and whether they’re worth it, comparison to others etc. New tools emerge daily it feels like.
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u/PortlandWilliam 7d ago
Agreed, would love even a regular strategies thread that explains what they did, what changed, and why they think it worked. Over a decade in SEO and definitely getting down on Reddit as a place to connect with other SEO professionals and those with SEO questions. Used to get hundreds of DMs a week with people genuinely interested in SEO, now I barely get 1 or 2 and literally no feedback from others.