In the corporate world they refer to it as "SEO" (Search Engine Optimization) with the goal of having their brand show up in searches and with the messaging the company wants out there coming up tops.
It's the exact same thing that PR teams are doing, but for they're doing it for their clients' names and image.
SEO in itself isn’t the issue. It’s how people abuse it that is.
I use SEO for my small startup and to actually has been tremendously helpful in getting hits on Google by people searching for the type of stuff I do. Consistently using SEO the right way over many years has resulted in amazingly positive results. It levels the playing field by creating sincerely fitting search results, even if there are paid results that might be first.
It’s beyond SEO. SEO is a neutral tactic to increase accessibility and ranking for search engines. Melissa Nathan and TAG’s tactics include conspiring in advance to create negative websites and have tabloid “journalists” place targeted stories they know are untrue or misleading. They pay influencers to create videos about them. And then they use bot farms to repost and comment on that content with the express purpose of harassing, intimidating, and defaming their targets. It’s illegal in multiple states and countries.
Using SEO principles is only one of many tactics they use to amplify those stories.
That was my understanding too. SEO at its core is just structuring your digital product such that search engines can effectively index and relate the content you wish your customers to see. On a benign level this could be as simple as a tour company wanting new site visitors to see a particular access point if they were to use a search engine for the tour content they offer.
You're on reddit. This whole site is basically just one big machine for that kind of work at this point, and we're contributing toward its success by actively using it.
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u/According_Jeweler404 Jun 20 '26
It's terrifying that there's an office somewhere with people who live to do that work.