We all know there’s a line that separates acceptable SEO techniques from those that are unacceptable. One might consider this to be an ethical issue, but the reality, in fact, is much more black and white. When a search engine algorithm or human reviewer analyzes your SEO technique, there are only two potential outcomes: acceptable or unacceptable. The consequences of using unacceptable SEO techniques range from a mild slap on the wrist, such as lower ranking in the search results, to a full ban from the search engines and removal of all your pages. Therefore, the fundamental ethical issue pertaining to SEO is if your SEO marketing company knows that a technique is unacceptable but decides to implement it anyway in the hope that it will go unnoticed or will achieve short term gain.
Let’s begin by defining some terms and referencing established rulebooks and guidelines. First, SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization, sometimes referred to as Organic Search Marketing. Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing traffic to your website by improving “natural” search results in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s) of a given search engine. There are three categories of SEO techniques used within the search marketing industry. “White Hat” techniques are perfectly acceptable and follow all the rules – these SEO techniques can withstand the harshest criticism and hold up because there is nothing “unethical” about them. At the other end of the spectrum are “Black Hat” techniques. These techniques violate webmaster guidelines and risk detection, leading to penalties, by search engines that are constantly evolving their algorithms. Finally, there are the “Gray Hat” techniques that are a little bit harder to categorize. These are the techniques that are not obviously acceptable or unacceptable. The rule of thumb for assessing these techniques generally involves asking the question, “Would my competitors report me for this?” and, if so, “Would a human reviewer working for the search engines determine that the technique is unacceptable?” If you are genuinely trying to improve the user experience and not game the system, then you will be able to determine the shade of gray your techniques occupy.
The official search engine guidelines can be referenced here:
Google Webmaster Guidelines
Bing Webmaster Center
Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines
Here are some SEO tips to keep in mind:
DO: Research
Stay informed about SEO marketing trends by subscribing to industry newsfeeds and learning from others with relevant experience. It is also important to research your target keywords, understand the competition, set goals for yourself and develop a plan for success.
DO: Copywriting
Write content that is relevant to your audience and that your visitors will actually read. Provide RSS feeds for your articles so that your audience can subscribe to your website and get notified when new content is published. Consistently add new content to your website so that visitors get in the habit of reading your articles.
DO: Site Optimization
Ensure that your website is technically sound and that there are no barriers preventing the search engines from accessing your content. There are plenty of useful beginner guides to SEO that can help get you started in the right direction. If you focus on optimizing the user experience and apply best SEO practices, then your website’s ranking will naturally improve in the search engines.
DO: Get Noticed
Be involved in your web community. Visit other websites that your visitors are going to so that you can participate in the conversation. Join social networking sites that your audience regularly visits and provide useful advice to questions they may post. If you focus on providing an interactive experience, you will start to get natural links from other websites. You may also utilize paid search engine marketing or purchase advertising space in influential websites to market your site further.
DO: Be Honest
Honesty pays. Nowadays, people are power-surfing the web, quickly scanning pages and making split second decisions based on trust. If your website is only optimized for search engines and does not provide meaningful content, then your customers will know right away and instantly hit the “Back” button. If you build your website with honest intentions and focus on the user experience then the search engines will reward you for your effort.
DON’T: Cloak
Cloaking is when you serve one version of your website to the search engines and another to your visitors. This is an old technique that can be detected automatically and will result in the removal of cloaked pages from the index.
DON’T: Hide Text
Hiding text is not the same as cloaking but is often confused with it. Hiding text is when you use technical tricks to make your content disappear from the page when a visitor accesses it. Some tricks include having white text or slightly off-white text on a page with a white background, using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to hide content (“display: none;”), or using JavaScript to hide text. Again, this is very easy to detect and will result in negative consequences from the search engines.
DON’T: Participate in Link Farms
It is a much better use of your time and energy to build a quality website and market it properly than it is to chase very poor quality links. The biggest risk here is that the search engines punish the link farm and then apply penalties against the websites that participated in it.
DON’T: Spam
Spamming can take on many different forms including bulk emails, automated form submissions, and automated discussion board posts. These types of practices annoy people and ruin any good will and trust that you may have already established. Moreover, their effectiveness is generally poor.
DON’T: Lie
If a technique is blatantly distrustful then it is only a matter of time before the search engines catch on. The last thing you want is to get called out in a public forum for dishonest tactics. This can lead to public relations nightmares and a overall tainting of your brand.
Conclusion
Most of the issues surrounding Ethical SEO can be clarified by properly doing your research and ensuring that any SEO marketing company you choose to work with is credible. If the SEO consultant is guaranteeing results or over-promising success then that is a good indication that you may need to look elsewhere for help.
