197: Is the Internet Dead? The Rise of Bot-to-Bot Web & the Decline of Human Content with Anne Berlin

In this episode of No Hacks, host Sani is joined by technical SEO strategist Anne Berlin to explore one of the most disturbing and fascinating topics on the web today: the Dead Internet Theory. Is most of what we see online actually created by bots, for bots? What happens when the web becomes a wasteland of AI-generated slop and abandoned digital ruins? Anne draws on her extensive experience analyzing crawl logs, server stats, and digital infrastructure to reveal how bot traffic is outpacing real users, and what that means for the future of human-centric content.

If you’ve ever wondered why the web feels “off” these days, this one’s for you.

👤 About the Guest: Anne Berlin

Anne Berlin is a Lead Product Strategist and Senior Technical SEO at Lumar, with over a decade of experience in digital strategy, enterprise SEO, and content performance optimization. Anne specializes in high-scale technical audits, crawl budget efficiency, and structured data for large websites, including e-commerce and news publishing giants. She’s a passionate advocate for reclaiming the human web and brings a cross-disciplinary lens to digital decay, combining SEO, DevOps, and sustainability insights.

She's previously led digital strategy for organizations like Kaplan and the Lupus Foundation of America and holds a Master’s from Georgetown University.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – What is the Dead Internet Theory?
00:24 – The rise of bots: from content creation to consumption
01:04 – How bots degrade user experience
01:44 – Why most web pages are unread by humans
02:25 – From Geocities to AI slop: the lost human web
03:06 – Budget cuts and digital burnout
04:01 – The hidden energy cost of web inefficiencies
05:37 – Cross-functional SEO: solving crawl waste
06:33 – One endpoint, a transatlantic flight's worth of carbon
07:25 – 60% of web traffic is non-human
08:01 – Are we too late to save the web?
09:42 – Join the crusade: building a human-led internet

✅ Key Takeaways

• Dead Internet Theory suggests that bots, not humans, dominate the web today—both as content creators and consumers.
• Anne estimates 60% of web traffic is bot-based, with only 40% appearing human.
• Many web pages are published without ever being seen by a human, often as part of programmatic SEO.
• Neglected code and crawl bloat have energy and environmental costs, with one exposed endpoint equating to a transatlantic flight in carbon emissions.
• The solution lies in cross-training and collaboration across SEO, DevOps, infrastructure, and security to reduce digital inefficiencies and prioritize meaningful content.
• Anne advocates for a return to a human-first web, where real people matter more than algorithms.

No Hacks is a podcast about web performance, technical SEO, and the agentic web. Hosted by Slobodan "Sani" Manic.