Real, SEO valuable in the long-term, is nothing more than another marketing channel. Saying SEO is bad for the web is much like saying leaflets you get in the m

Real, SEO valuable in the long-term, is nothing more than another marketing channel. Saying SEO is bad for the web is much like saying leaflets you get in the mail are bad. As with everything marketing, there are good people/companies who get their message across without being sleazy or spammy, and then there are sleazeballs. IMHO, Google had a few settings wrong (call them "bugs" if you want) in early 2000s which many techies capitalised on. It's no different than finding a loophole in the finance industry regulation and trying to get away with it. In the case of Google's bugs, Google eventually reacted and became much more stringent. Sadly, by then the reputation damage to SEO has been done. As for sentences for URLs, I agree with you. There is a fine balance between saying domain.com/widgets/green and domain.com/buy-new-and-used-widgets-green . I always ask which one would you rather speak over the phone, and that gets the point across.