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  "description": "Finding the human in a sea of sales",
  "path": "/de-optimize-your-search-terms-to-skip-seo-slop/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-20T20:23:12.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.autodidacts.io",
  "textContent": "I used to search for “Best Wired Earbuds” and “Best SciFi Films” and so forth, because I like _perfection._\n\nBut these kinds of searches don’t get me _the best X,_ they get me _the X with the best marketing team._ These are not the same thing.\n\nIt took me a long time, and countless affiliate-link-laden “comparisons” before I realized that the top results for “best” anything range from comparing-while-motivated (Wirecutter) to pure unrefined vegetarian snake oil.\n\nIf there’s money to be had from the people searching for something, somebody, somewhere, has probably spent money to get a particular thing in front of the eyeballs of the populace.\n\nAs usual, once we understand the system, we can find loopholes in the system.\n\nThe default thing to search for when looking for opinions about products/media/etc is “best such and such” or maybe “such and such comparison”. But humans often ask questions like, “what’s your favorite such and such?”, or “what X do you use for Y?”.\n\nThere’s a Venn diagram of what people search for, and what people SEO optimize for:\n\nThis human crescent on the right is where we can find peace, and good quality information.\n\nNow excuse me while I go search for the second best wired earbuds, fairly decent scifi movies, and serviceable camping tents.\n\nPerhaps we will meet again in the comments of one of those “less-well-known generalist blogs.”",
  "title": "De-optimize your search terms to skip the SEO slop",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-20T20:23:12.000Z"
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