Argument against: "search engine optimisation" is about optimising web sites for machines, not for people. Argument for: the function of those machines is to h

Argument against: "search engine optimisation" is about optimising web sites for machines, not for people. Argument for: the function of those machines is to help people, so a) optimising for the machines is indirectly beneficial to people because they're happier when the machines work better, and b) as the machines get better at understanding what's good for people, optimising for the machines becomes more directly beneficial to people because they both "want" the same thing. The web would be better if everyone simultaneously stopped doing SEO and started thinking about people directly instead of indirectly via Google's ranking algorithms, but now that the arms race is in full effect and there are a million parasites making a living from it, the best case scenario is for Google to continue to close the gap between "good for machines" and "good for people" so that the satisfaction of the SEO gods translates as completely as possible into the satisfaction of human users.