SEO Done Right
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 8:51AM The controversy surrounding a New York Times expose of alleged 'black hat' SEO practices by a large U.S retailer raises the question of what it means to do ethical SEO. [If the retailer has released a statement about its point of view, a Google search doesn't find it easily:)]
The answer is not all that tough to figure out especially since Google provides relatively clear direction to webmasters on its search policies:
Quality guidelines - basic principles
- Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking."
- Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
- Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.
- Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.
Seems unequivocal to me.
My company's newly appointed global head of digital communications -- Andrew Bleeker -- put it this way in an email to our social web team: "At Hill and Knowlton, we believe in a transparent approach to search engine optimization that still achieves the results we need . . . but still adhering to the spirit of how these search engines operate."
That's probably all it takes to ensure that you don't suffer the kind of reputational hit the retailer has received.
Corporate Reputation, SEO, Social Media 
Reader Comments (9)
I agree one hundred percent with your post. There has been a lot of noise about seo since the information about JC Penny's was released. Putting another bad spin on our business. If you been active in SEO for any length of time you know it is not worth trying to game the system, because eventually you will be caught. It is much better to follow the rules and be honest with your seo clients by not promising the world. One of the main problems I see is that too many unqualified people are out there calling themselves seo professionals and harming the reputation of the whole industry. They make outlandish promise and then have to resort to black hat methods to try to accomplish their goals. They then leave there client and a month or two later the client is being punished for the black hat seo that was done for there site in the recent past. This harms the entire industry.
You are right of course, especially your comment "too many unqualified people are out there calling themselves seo professionals." I am afraid this is broadly the case when it comes to digital strategies in general.
Thanks for your comment.
I agree to that. SEO is a good industry but some people are trying to take it lightly. They pretended to be an SEO professionals. There should be some guidelines to follow, etc.
Jeff Alderson
SEO Equalizer
In reality there is neither white or black hat SEO, just what works and is economically viable for you. Taking risks is acceptable if you can afford to take them. Most cannot. There is nothing moral about it. Search engines are businesses. Wealthy ones at that. They set the rules and make money from other people's content. The only imperative to comply is if it's best for you.
Azam Corry
Learn SEO
Well, Azam, that's certainly a unique take on the 'ethics' of SEO. I see nothing wrong with optimizing search results. But if the platform -- Google -- says here are its rules, you either argue the rules are wrong or abide by them. Your comment has done its job though. I will take a look at your book :)
For this reason it is important to try to stay updated as far as new SEO are concerned. The off-page elements of website promotion and SEO are just as important. The majority of issues with SEO is very basic and just takes time to be picked up on search engines. For this you need SEO experts like the tulsa internet marketing to help you out.
I totally agree on your points but really SEO nowadays is getting harder and harder because of link building softwares used by blackhatters. I recently watched a site last month having link lesser than 10000 and yesterday i am checking it they have a around 370000+. I was amazed to see this and for some reason i did report them to Google Spam Report center.
SEO Sri Lanka
The company must understand the difference between white and black hat techniques. They should also consider that content is the king. Unique content makes readers return to the site and this could translate to a possible transaction. seo norwich
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