SEO for social good?

Can you paint a picture of search engine optimization (SEO) for social good?

Is this how Google pictures it?

Screenshot taken with GoFullPage (distortions possible; cropped) at: 2023-08-22 15:37:55

What might SEO for social good look like?

What if the optimization was towards social good, not only towards the corporate guidebook? What if discussion of the "ethicality of optimization" [@ziewitz2019rethinking] considered what should be optimized and not just whether or how to optimize? Is there an approach to "societal relevance" [@sundin2021relevance]¹ that looks well-beyond the search producers? I'm not suggested we should further "outsource morally ambiguous work" [@ziewitz2019rethinking p. 18] to SEOs, but coordinate with them? As one example, SEOs worked to repair Google's failure re the Google Holocaust search results.² SEOs work to facilitate complaints to Google [@griffin2022search]. What else already exists? What might be possible? Can we think about the "various forms of ignorance related to climate change" [@haider2023google] and the role the SEO communities might have? How can we "situate our visions of search [ . . . ] within an understanding of how current search technologies interact with users and affect others" and the massive role SEO plays in making both the best and worst of search in the last two plus decades. Sure, "gaming the system" [@ziewitz2019rethinking] but also conducting maintenance & repair, articulation work, and using their voice in complaint³.

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I've seen many SEOs engage productively with folks sharing search complaints on Twitter/X. But I think SEO professionals are perhaps well-positioned to *more formally* receive, document, and relay search quality complaints from the public (alongside other SEO for social good work).

An alternate phrasing may be _public interest SEO_ (following "public interest technology") or _SEO in the public interest_. Who is formally doing, and investing in the expertise & relationships to better do, **public interest SEO** _pro bono_?

Added

On Twitter/X, [Dave Guarino replied](https://twitter.com/allafarce/status/1720211912741552200) to [my tweet](https://twitter.com/danielsgriffin/status/1720143731230470570), asking:

Who else is doing SEO for social good work??

I responded (edited for clarity & to add links):

I'm not sure! I'm hopeful! I've seen folks work to repair the [did the Holocaust happen] SERP in winter 2016/2017, folks donating services re Ukraine in winter 2022, and some firms explicitly mention pro bono work for nonprofits/charities. I've seen nothing comprehensive yet.

I'm very interested in the sort of queries you've explored and SEOs maybe organizing around that sorta core public interest searching (along with other YMYL queries with broad impact). But I also think they can help the broader public better understand and advocate around search.

See [queries Guarino has evaluated: "We really need to talk more about monitoring search quality for public interest topics."](/weblinks/2023/08/31/talk-more-about-monitoring-search-quality-for-public-interest-topics/)

It has been very much on the backburner throughout my dissertation work and I'd love to find ways to engage more, possibly researching existing efforts or working to connect folks to start something new.

Perhaps something in this vein can be added to @sundin2021relevance's § 5. IDEAS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH. ↩
See also the analysis of this case in @mulligan2018rescripting. ↩
Look at the work of SEOs in observing, describing, and critiquing Google's rollout of its "Search Generative Experience": Twitter[google sge (bad OR wrong OR false OR harmful OR lilyraynyc)] ↩

Can you paint a picture of search engine optimization (SEO) for social good?

Google [ seo for social good ]

What might SEO for social good look like?

Google [ "seo for social good" ]

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