I wonder who started all this talk about Ethical & Unethical search engine optimization? Back when the SEO industry was not very well known and popular search engines were Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, Alltheweb, Fast,etc., optimization did not require much except for meta tag optimization with lots of keywords. No one talked about any technique being ethical and unethical then. Every technique used was a “marketing” method to get websites to rank. Search engine optimization back then was simpler. “Ethical” and “Unethical” was not even an issue.
As search engine technology developed, so did the optimization techniques. Some search engine marketers developed better programming techniques to gain rankings. Others add optimized content. Some utilized a combination of techniques. The ultimate goal was still the same: profit for the clients and the SEO companies. We were only a tiny industry just trying to capitalize in this growing internet market.
Then came the “ethical” and “unethical” debate. I’m sure you can find out what this is all about in various forums. “Black Hats” and “White Hats” SEOs; why is it that such a small industry like ours getting to be so anal about “ethical” versus “unethical”. It’s MARKETING. We all use different techniques to market web sites. There is no single technique that works for every web site. Some web sites are just difficult to rank but with competent SEO (whatever techniques that may used), sites can gain top rankings over their competitors and sites that are not even aware of optimization. Well, I guess this is not enough with some marketers. Here comes the “holier than thou” marketing “My god is better than yours” etc. From reading many forums debating over “ethical” and “unethical”, I only see “ethical” marketers and Google that seem to be so anal about how the optimization industry should run. The “unethical” SEOs (I don’t even think they are) pretty much keep working to help clients. They do not talk about how web sites should be optimized. It seems like they just keep on working. I don’t know about you but I think I’d pick a company that optimizes my sites and gives me results and visibility over a company who only can only talk about how my site should be built to please Google.
In my opinion, web marketing is getting tougher. Whatever techniques SEOs use cannot and should not be strictly defined as “ethical” or “unethical”. Marketing in itself cannot be defined by just two terms. There are too many factors involved. Yet, many search engine optimization companies use this as the ground to judge other SEOs as well as limit what search engine optimization is about. I think it’s just one of their marketing techniques. Kudos if it works for them. But going on and on and on about how they are “ethical” and others are not, that’s getting annoying. And if you read the debate long enough, what makes an SEO “unethical” is that he/she doesn’t follow the guidelines as “defined by Google”. You know, I do like Google. It’s a good search engine. Some SEOs talk so much about Google, it makes me wonder if they are really SEOs or just someone in Google posing as SEOs in the forum
What’s my point here you ask.? I guess I just want the “ethical” and “unethical” talk to be over. I’m tired of the “holier than thou” marketing technique. It starting to sound more and more like a “Jesus loves me more than you” kind of thing. And THAT, plain and simple, is just ridiculous. Everybody knows Jesus loves ME the best. And I am a Buddhist! Sorry, I had to end this blog again by being corny Ain’t that what this is all about????