June 2025

Summary AI in SEO: Sentiment is mixed—fearful of AI\’s impact on search rankings and content quality, but positive about its use for technical tasks. SEO Careers: Rising anxiety about job security and the value of current skills. Reputation Management: Shift needed from traditional ORM to \”Generative AI Reputation Management\” to influence AI outputs. Overall: SEO community moving from AI hype to skepticism; adaptation and focus on human value are key. A Glimpse into the Shifting Tides: SEO & AI on Reddit My year-long exploration of Reddit\’s SEO forums reveals a critical turning point: AI is reshaping the search paradigm. This sentiment analysis, powered by Gemini, highlights the challenges and opportunities, confirming why effective online reputation management must now embrace strategies beyond Google. I always scroll through SEO (and many other) subreddits to see what people are actually talking about–it’s the zeitgeist of the moment.  Around May 2024, SEO Reddit posts were starting to talk about AI/ChatGPT. People were excited, nervous, curious. However, fast forward to May 2025, when the sentiment is totally different. Hype has died down, and with a new reality sinking in, the feeling is complicated. People are using AI, and it’s not always what they expected, AND they now see ranking in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity as the near future. This got me wondering what actually changed in a year. I wanted to see the shift in opinions for myself, so I decided to create a small project. I used Gemini to analyze the sentiment on the biggest SEO subreddits to understand how it really changed. Although I work in online reputation management, not SEO, there is much overlap, and I see sentiment and solutions for both are nearly the same. Since online reputation sub Reddit groups are infinitesimally smaller than the search ones, I centered on those to gather more opinions and thus more data points. Also, anticipating this, I have shifted focus to generative AI reputation management which combines traditional reputation management with new approaches, and found this small study to confirm the future: things are moving away from traditional search engines swiftly. Schedule Your Free 15-Min Consult Schedule Your Free 15-Min Consult My Method: How I Tracked Reddit\’s Sentiment with Gemini I didn\’t try to scan all of Reddit. I just picked the big SEO subreddits where mostly pros hang out and post questions and concerns (r/SEO, r/bigseo, r/TechSEO). My goal was to get the pulse of the communities where people in the trenches are talking about how AI–both as a tool and new paradigm–actually affects their work. I pulled several hundred distinct threads and many thousands of top-level comments from May 1, 2024, to May 30, 2025, to get a full year’s worth of conversations. This let me compare the mood and spot trends. I looked for threads about AI\’s effect on things like content, technical SEO, rankings, tools and the future of SEO jobs. After gathering a bunch of posts, I had Gemini analyze the sentiment. It sorted the opinions into \’Positive,\’ \’Negative,\’ or \’Neutral\’ for each topic. Using Gemini saved a ton of time; doing it by hand would have been impossible. Just to be clear, this was my own project, not some huge academic study, and was conducted by analyzing publicly available discussions in a way that respects user privacy and platform terms. It’s a snapshot of what real people are saying. The Unveiling: What a Year of AI in SEO Looks Like on Reddit After crunching the numbers, the mood swing was pretty real. Some people are leaning into AI, but many traditional SEO firms are nervous. Generally, they are struggling with AI being both a helpful tool and something that could change everything–including maybe putting them out of business. People are not just talking about it; they\’re judging it based on real results. Here\’s a breakdown of the sentiment shifts for key aspects. AI for Content Generation  Notable Change & Observations: -15% Positive, +20% Negative. People are way more skeptical. The initial hype about creating content fast has been replaced by worries about quality and getting penalized for AI spam. AI for Technical SEO Notable Change & Observations: +15% Positive. This is a clear winner. The community loves using AI for the complicated, boring data stuff. It helps them focus on bigger picture strategy. AI\’s Impact on Search Rankings Notable Change & Observations: -10% Positive, +25% Negative. This is where the panic is setting in. AI messing with search results is a huge concern and people feel like they\’re losing control. AI Tools & Automation (General)  Notable Change & Observations: -10% Positive, +15% Negative. The excitement has cooled off. I think people are being more realistic now, weighing the benefits against the costs and hassles of using the tools. Future of SEO Professionals Notable Change & Observations: -10% Positive, +20% Negative. Job security anxiety is up. There\’s a growing fear that skills are becoming outdated and that SEOs need to adapt fast to stay relevant. To summarize the data in one place, here’s a table showing what I found: Table: AI in SEO Tracking the Tremors in Sentiment (May 2024 – May 2025) Key Aspect of AI in SEO Sentiment May 2024 (% P, N, Neg) Sentiment May 2025 (% P, N, Neg) Notable Change & Observations AI for Content Generation 40% P, 30% N, 30% Neg 25% P, 25% N, 50% Neg -15% Positive, +20% Negative. People are way more skeptical. The initial hype about creating content fast has been replaced by worries about quality and getting penalized for AI spam. AI for Technical SEO 60% P, 30% N, 10% Neg 75% P, 15% N, 10% Neg 15% Positive. This is a clear winner. The community loves using AI for the complicated, boring data stuff. It helps them focus on bigger picture strategy. AI\’s Impact on Search Rankings 20% P, 40% N, 40% Neg 10% P, 25% N, 65% Neg -10% Positive, +25% Negative. This is where the panic is setting in. AI messing with search

Summary AI in SEO: Sentiment is mixed—fearful of AI\’s impact on search rankings and content quality, but positive about its use for technical tasks. SEO Careers: Rising anxiety about job security and the value of current skills. Reputation Management: Shift needed from traditional ORM to \”Generative AI Reputation Management\” to influence AI outputs. Overall: SEO community moving from AI hype to skepticism; adaptation and focus on human value are key. A Glimpse into the Shifting Tides: SEO & AI on Reddit My year-long exploration of Reddit\’s SEO forums reveals a critical turning point: AI is reshaping the search paradigm. This sentiment analysis, powered by Gemini, highlights the challenges and opportunities, confirming why effective online reputation management must now embrace strategies beyond Google. I always scroll through SEO (and many other) subreddits to see what people are actually talking about–it’s the zeitgeist of the moment.  Around May 2024, SEO Reddit posts were starting to talk about AI/ChatGPT. People were excited, nervous, curious. However, fast forward to May 2025, when the sentiment is totally different. Hype has died down, and with a new reality sinking in, the feeling is complicated. People are using AI, and it’s not always what they expected, AND they now see ranking in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity as the near future. This got me wondering what actually changed in a year. I wanted to see the shift in opinions for myself, so I decided to create a small project. I used Gemini to analyze the sentiment on the biggest SEO subreddits to understand how it really changed. Although I work in online reputation management, not SEO, there is much overlap, and I see sentiment and solutions for both are nearly the same. Since online reputation sub Reddit groups are infinitesimally smaller than the search ones, I centered on those to gather more opinions and thus more data points. Also, anticipating this, I have shifted focus to generative AI reputation management which combines traditional reputation management with new approaches, and found this small study to confirm the future: things are moving away from traditional search engines swiftly. Schedule Your Free 15-Min Consult Schedule Your Free 15-Min Consult My Method: How I Tracked Reddit\’s Sentiment with Gemini I didn\’t try to scan all of Reddit. I just picked the big SEO subreddits where mostly pros hang out and post questions and concerns (r/SEO, r/bigseo, r/TechSEO). My goal was to get the pulse of the communities where people in the trenches are talking about how AI–both as a tool and new paradigm–actually affects their work. I pulled several hundred distinct threads and many thousands of top-level comments from May 1, 2024, to May 30, 2025, to get a full year’s worth of conversations. This let me compare the mood and spot trends. I looked for threads about AI\’s effect on things like content, technical SEO, rankings, tools and the future of SEO jobs. After gathering a bunch of posts, I had Gemini analyze the sentiment. It sorted the opinions into \’Positive,\’ \’Negative,\’ or \’Neutral\’ for each topic. Using Gemini saved a ton of time; doing it by hand would have been impossible. Just to be clear, this was my own project, not some huge academic study, and was conducted by analyzing publicly available discussions in a way that respects user privacy and platform terms. It’s a snapshot of what real people are saying. The Unveiling: What a Year of AI in SEO Looks Like on Reddit After crunching the numbers, the mood swing was pretty real. Some people are leaning into AI, but many traditional SEO firms are nervous. Generally, they are struggling with AI being both a helpful tool and something that could change everything–including maybe putting them out of business. People are not just talking about it; they\’re judging it based on real results. Here\’s a breakdown of the sentiment shifts for key aspects. AI for Content Generation  Notable Change & Observations: -15% Positive, +20% Negative. People are way more skeptical. The initial hype about creating content fast has been replaced by worries about quality and getting penalized for AI spam. AI for Technical SEO Notable Change & Observations: +15% Positive. This is a clear winner. The community loves using AI for the complicated, boring data stuff. It helps them focus on bigger picture strategy. AI\’s Impact on Search Rankings Notable Change & Observations: -10% Positive, +25% Negative. This is where the panic is setting in. AI messing with search results is a huge concern and people feel like they\’re losing control. AI Tools & Automation (General)  Notable Change & Observations: -10% Positive, +15% Negative. The excitement has cooled off. I think people are being more realistic now, weighing the benefits against the costs and hassles of using the tools. Future of SEO Professionals Notable Change & Observations: -10% Positive, +20% Negative. Job security anxiety is up. There\’s a growing fear that skills are becoming outdated and that SEOs need to adapt fast to stay relevant. To summarize the data in one place, here’s a table showing what I found: Table: AI in SEO Tracking the Tremors in Sentiment (May 2024 – May 2025) Key Aspect of AI in SEO Sentiment May 2024 (% P, N, Neg) Sentiment May 2025 (% P, N, Neg) Notable Change & Observations AI for Content Generation 40% P, 30% N, 30% Neg 25% P, 25% N, 50% Neg -15% Positive, +20% Negative. People are way more skeptical. The initial hype about creating content fast has been replaced by worries about quality and getting penalized for AI spam. AI for Technical SEO 60% P, 30% N, 10% Neg 75% P, 15% N, 10% Neg 15% Positive. This is a clear winner. The community loves using AI for the complicated, boring data stuff. It helps them focus on bigger picture strategy. AI\’s Impact on Search Rankings 20% P, 40% N, 40% Neg 10% P, 25% N, 65% Neg -10% Positive, +25% Negative. This is where the panic is setting in. AI messing with search