Earlier this week Rand questioned Should SEOs Spam report competitors? Thinking about it makes me realize that I could write a whole volume about search marketing ethics.
- Is the statement, “Reporting spam may hurt your fellow SEOs (gray or black hat though their tactics may be) and is thus unethical,” correct?
- If someone breaks the rules, in this case the search engine terms of service, then are they acting unethically?
- Can reporting unethical behavior itself be unethical? Or, is it like akin to not reporting your neighbor to the police because she is stealing cars?
Can you divide right and wrong conditionally?
Let’s say we accept that you as an SEO should not report another optimizer for using a technique you have used in the past.
- What if you are working on behalf of a client that never used the method or benefited from it?
- Are you obligated to your client or to your personal history?
What about honor among search marketers?
- Is a code of omertà between SEO consultants a form of collusion?
- Is the principal of non-reporting itself unethical?
You can argue for the flip-side too.
Search engines are not legal authorities. Terms of service are not laws. Terms of service are written to benefit search engines, not users and definitely search marketers.
- Is reporting a violation of the terms of service pandering to the search engines?
- Is it ethical to adopt the the rules of the search engines when those rules may hurt your projects or clients?
How does role affect ethics?
Must each of these observe the same rules or do their different responsibilities create different sets of ethics?
- Independent practitioner working on her own projects
- In-house SEO working on behalf of an employer
- SEO consultant advising clients
- Independent service provider performing actual work on behalf of clients
So what do you have to say?
- Which issues are you passionate about?
- What’s your opinion concerning these issues?
- Do you honor search engines, clients or other SEOs?
- What ethical implications do you struggle with in your work and how have you resolved them?
