The internet disrupted traditional practices by enabling web pages, and even different websites, to connect with each other: the hypertext link. This simple HTML tag <a href> transformed how we access and navigate information.
Later, Google introduced an innovation that would add even more value to hypertext links: they now also serve to measure the relevance of content distributed across the web.
The excerpt below is taken from a publication by Italian author Alessandro Baricco where, in his philosophical argument, he highlights the great transformation that accompanied the advent of Google and the internet in general. This text particularly caught my attention as this innovation—the creation of the search engine—gave birth to a new obsession: search engine optimization.
“Google is, in fact, what most resembles the invention of the printing press for us. Those two [Larry Page and Sergey Brin] are the only Gutenbergs to appear after Gutenberg.
[…] For Page and Brin, however, this is where it all began. They were among the first to guess that these links were not just an additional option on the web: they were its very meaning, its ultimate accomplishment. Without links, the Internet would have remained a catalog, new in form, but traditional in essence. With links, the network became something that would change the way we think.”
Baricco, Alessandro, The Barbarians: An Essay on the Mutation, Paris, Gallimard, 2014
From PageRank to the Obsession with SEO
The true revolution introduced by Google lies in its PageRank algorithm, which assigns a quantifiable value to links. What was once just a means of navigation has become an indicator of relevance and authority. This innovation transformed the internet into an interconnected ecosystem where each link participates in a collective evaluation of a source’s credibility.
However, this measurability has produced an unexpected consequence: the obsession with search engine optimization. What was originally a quality indicator has gradually become an end in itself for many content creators. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has established itself as an essential discipline, sometimes at the expense of the user experience.
The Algorithmic Race: A Counterproductive Game of Hide-and-Seek
Today, we observe a paradoxical situation: on one side, website publishers who multiply techniques to improve their ranking, and on the other, Google which regularly makes its algorithm more complex to counter these practices and identify truly relevant content.
This dynamic has created a veritable digital arms race. Referencing techniques evolve from “white hat” (ethical practices) to “black hat” (manipulative practices), while algorithmic updates like Panda, Penguin, or BERT attempt to restore balance.
The result? A massive game of hide-and-seek between search engines and SEO specialists, which sometimes diverts attention from what’s essential: the human behind the screen.
Towards a Human-Centered Approach: DPO
My perspective is as follows: Think DPO [Digital Presence Optimization] rather than SEO [Search Engine Optimization]… in other words, consider the human behind the machine.
Certainly, gaining visibility on search engines is a perfectly laudable objective, but it is not an end in itself. On the contrary, if we return to the original spirit, position in the “ranking” is an indicator.
The fact is that today, many website publishers have made it an absolute objective to achieve at all costs, without really taking into account the perception of the true final recipient: the internet user.
Digital Presence Optimization (DPO, or web presence optimization) is the implementation of a strategy between adapting a communication strategy to the web context and technical optimizations to facilitate the understanding of content by search engines (SEO, in the original sense of the term). The objective is then to target, not the machines (search engines) but the user, the true final consumer of the information, to have an impact on the long term and on a true human perception.
The true value of the internet lies in its ability to connect information with each other, but especially humans with each other. Rediscovering this essence is perhaps the real challenge of our online presence.
“What Google teaches is that there are today an enormous number of humans for whom, each day, important knowledge is knowledge capable of entering into sequence with all others.”
Alessandro Baricco
Behind every click, every search, every interaction is a human being with needs, expectations, and sensitivities. It is by keeping this reality in mind that we can truly optimize our digital presence.