Thread: Unethical SEO

Originally Posted by Kovich

So - have you ever filed a spam report with Google?

Nope and I never will. Its a low kick and I would rather left the Google and time take care of it.

Do you monitor your competition?

Yes in some cases. Also trying to get backlinks from some of their sources

Do you engage in unethical SEO?

Nope. Only white hat but few times I got involved in BH without intention to do it.
Mostly because of lack of knowledge.

Originally Posted by Kovich

So no, it's not unethical to engage in standard SEO. It's unethical to engage in SEO that violates the search engine's rules and guidelines.

This is the faulty part with the ethics debate. A search engine's viewpoint is self-serving.

I follow their rules, but I do not see them as a guiding light for moral behavior. Ethics is a moral philosophy issue. Each search engine has their own problems with ethics and activities that some people justifiably view as illegal or unethical such as stealing copyrighted images, invasion of privacy issues, partnerships with click fraud rings, PPC billing overcharges, etc.

Don't you find it curious that the largest link seller on the web penalizes sites that sell links? Which side of the ethical argument does that fall on? Who is unethical? Is the link seller who doesn't follow a search engine's guidelines or a search engine who appears to be trying to limit their competition?

Ethics is always a matter of viewpoint. Perhaps you should be asking if someone knowingly violates search engine guidelines, rather that referring to it as unethical SEO.

I must admit that I don't look at my competition, if I have any. I just focus on my websites and aim to deliver good content to whatever visitors I may get landing on my pages.

My focus is on building more and more web sites/pages and doing what I know to optimize them and build traffic by contributing to the web community.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

This is the faulty part with the ethics debate. A search engine's viewpoint is self-serving.

I follow their rules, but I do not see them as a guiding light for moral behavior. Ethics is a moral philosophy issue. Each search engine has their own problems with ethics and activities that some people justifiably view as illegal or unethical such as stealing copyrighted images, invasion of privacy issues, partnerships with click fraud rings, PPC billing overcharges, etc.

Don't you find it curious that the largest link seller on the web penalizes sites that sell links? Which side of the ethical argument does that fall on? Who is unethical? Is the link seller who doesn't follow a search engine's guidelines or a search engine who appears to be trying to limit their competition?

Ethics is always a matter of viewpoint. Perhaps you should be asking if someone knowingly violates search engine guidelines, rather that referring to it as unethical SEO.

Exactly. It's their rules and if you get punished for breaking them, then you pay the price. Other than that it's a free market.

Well,
I have a question to ask you guys.....?
what are the ways to consider the ethics of the visitor come to our website...And What would be it's remarks when the visitor is not feeling comfortable with the webpage regarding it's content....? Kindly share some tips...

Originally Posted by Bessagnes

Well,
I have a question to ask you guys.....?
what are the ways to consider the ethics of the visitor come to our website...And What would be it's remarks when the visitor is not feeling comfortable with the webpage regarding it's content....? Kindly share some tips...

Hi,

I am a little lost with the question.

I would feel that the ethics of the visitor would all depend on the content of your site.

I would think if your website is on Mom and Apple Pie it won't get the same people that would be searching for and come to a site like Larceny Tips.

As far as not feeling comfortable with the webpage again I am lost?

Are you talking a hate site or about the Obama health care plan? Both will deffently make people uncomfortable just to different degrees.

Sami

Using a keyword in the meta description 4 times is not really spamming IMO. I doubt that would trip any triggers at Google since so many people who have no clue about SEO might do this naturally because they don't know any better.

I generally agree with the previous post who as a majority answer no, no, no to your three questions. I wouldn't report people doing bad things because 1) as they said Google likely already knows and 2) I don't want to attract any attention to myself even if all I do is on the up and up. I would however disagree about keeping track of the competition. I learn a LOT about what I can do better by evaluating my competitors' onsite optimizations as well as their back link profile. It's has never been a waste of time. I've gotten some very good ideas that turned out to be very useful with getting ranked by doing so.

Originally Posted by Social-Media

I don't want to attract any attention to myself even if all I do is on the up and up.

You now need to file a spam report using webmaster tools.

I define as unethical everything that involves fraud and force (which includes theft).

Keyword stuffing isn't unethical because the person doing it is merely using his or his rented property as he pleases. He's not doing anything that denies you from doing whatever you want with yours. He's not unethical because Google doesn't like the practice because he doesn't have an explicit contract with Google that would bind him to any particular behavior.

For the same reason, I don't consider link selling unethical. Google doesn't like it, sure, it's against their guidelines. But since when does Google own my site? It's my site and I'll do with it whatever I want, even if I risk lessening my Google rankings with it.

Do you want a real example of an utterly unethical practice? Spam! When somebody comes to your site which in its terms of use clearly states that spamming (clearly defined) is not allowed and someone still does it, even as you keep deleting hordes of spam every day, that's a violation. The spammers are using my property in ways in which I have not allowed them to which amounts to pure and simple theft.

The saddest thing is that there's this thing called "blackhat SEO" which allows for such tactics and carries a rather large following, to the point of seeming legitimate to some people.

Oh and what's illegal or legal doesn't enter into it. Laws are ridiculously out of sync with moral philosophy they're not even worthy of attention except to avoid being kidnapped or stolen from by the officials.

That's how I think of it.

Originally Posted by memenode

I define as unethical everything that involves fraud and force (which includes theft).

Keyword stuffing isn't unethical because the person doing it is merely using his or his rented property as he pleases. He's not doing anything that denies you from doing whatever you want with yours. He's not unethical because Google doesn't like the practice because he doesn't have an explicit contract with Google that would bind him to any particular behavior.

For the same reason, I don't consider link selling unethical. Google doesn't like it, sure, it's against their guidelines. But since when does Google own my site? It's my site and I'll do with it whatever I want, even if I risk lessening my Google rankings with it.

Do you want a real example of an utterly unethical practice? Spam! When somebody comes to your site which in its terms of use clearly states that spamming (clearly defined) is not allowed and someone still does it, even as you keep deleting hordes of spam every day, that's a violation. The spammers are using my property in ways in which I have not allowed them to which amounts to pure and simple theft.

The saddest thing is that there's this thing called "blackhat SEO" which allows for such tactics and carries a rather large following, to the point of seeming legitimate to some people.

Oh and what's illegal or legal doesn't enter into it. Laws are ridiculously out of sync with moral philosophy they're not even worthy of attention except to avoid being kidnapped or stolen from by the officials.

That's how I think of it.

and you are right,at least in my book.As long as you dont damage other people or their property you may do whatever you like,of course Google doesent like black hat techniques,but I dont like Pop music,should all pop performers be rounded up and killed ?
Of course not...
Search engines dont own the internet,on your site you may do anything you like as long as you are not damaging other people or their property.But blackhat is BAD for your site,because after a while search engines find out that you use these techniques and then your site wont see the light ever again...