[ignostic]

Just change (unfair) to (sometimes unfair), and I think he's dead on.

Most of the SEO companies out there are still either link spammers or impotent content marketers. There are exceptions: SEO-centered companies doing legitimate digital marketing - but it's fairly rare for them to do it well.

I use Moz's Open Site Explorer, and I watch closely to see what SEO companies are doing. More often than not, they're spamming links all across the web. This is true even today, even with Google's spam-fighting techniques becoming increasingly sophisticated. SEO companies are often leading their clients to the slaughter. Some companies that preach "great content, great UX" also turn around and buy or blast links.

To Moz's credit, they've really been pushing hard to encourage people to stop spamming and buying links. Their writers constantly argue against link spam, encouraging SEOs to instead create content that people will love. Their message actually meshes quite well with PG's philosophy on start ups, and indeed I know Rand is influenced by PG and HN.

It's possible that someone deeply involved in the Moz community, as Rand is, may just see a non-representative sample of non-spammers. They must realize this to some extent, as they're pulling "SEO" out of their branding.