I was recently reading about SEO ethics and wanted to get everyone's opinion. Are there any SEO tricks that shouldn't be used for ethical reasons or is everything you can get away with free for all to use as long as you don't get caught? I can't think of anything off the top of my head but I know I've read of a quite a few underhanded SEO tricks in the past that I personally wouldn't try.
There are many out there and probably one of the most talked about would be cloaking sites. Another thing I am starting to see is companies launching more than one site to flood the search engine results. Only yesterday did I see the same company listed as #6 #7 & #11 on Google for three different sites. Dunno if that would be ethical or not put it sure puts my #5 spot under major pressure.
I feel that these blackhat and 'unethical' techniques will eventually get your site under some penalty. Its better to be on the safer road to avoid any troubles later on.
i agree rosiee007. it is always better to go by the rules. though effects may not be instant, it'll do good to your site in the long run.
This is a good question, but one where there are more than one answer. First off I should say that I am ethical, and do not get involved in unethical behaviour (other than to get a full understanding of how it works). It is Also IMO not the job of anyone but yourself to decide how ethical YOUR business should be. Ok onto the question There is no such thing as 'SEO Ethics'. there is JUST ethics, black and white. You are either ethical or you are not. You can NOT say that you are ethical in your offline everyday life, but unethical in your business dealings, as that doesn't wash IMO. It is akin to saying that you are not gay, because you only sleep with people of the same sex when you are not with your partner, so it doesn't count . BUT, that said, it is a personal choice. Which brings me on to the next point. WHO DECIDES? If the site is yours, and you fully understand that using black hat methods will eventually get your site banned/Penalised, today, tommorrow, next month, next year 5 years, maybe never (unlikely), then as long as you are prepared to accept that, On your own head be it. That is down to your own personal choice. IF on the other hand you are a web marketer working for a customer THEY are the ONLY people who should make that decision, I would stick my neck out and say that it is totally unnacceptable to place any risk on a client site, without them being FULLY aware of the potential damage that 'may' happen. One of the biggest mistakes people make, is thinking they are building a long term buinsess with black hat methods, you are not, because you are creating a series of short term businesses based around throw away sites etc. So if you are the sort of business where branding and reputation is important to you, then black hat is out of the question (unless you are building a black hat business brand when obviously the worse the better LOL). Black hat methods are all about disposability, and being able to move fast and furiously. I will now throw back at you your own question. bit of black hat SEO? Bit of online fraud bit of bank robbing? Is 'getting caught' the block for you then? Your statement here tells me you are not black hat material, because black hat stuff is all about acceptance of getting caught as part of its normal working practice. What stops me doing any black hat? (I should add that I HAVE used black hat stuff to prove a point to someone that there IS something that others can do to remove a site from the serps! This hurt no one though as it was a simple him and me contest. ) What stops me is that I am not that way inclined, I do not cheat at anything I do, because it is simply not in my nature. It has never stopped me from winning though. I should also say that I admire some peole who are true black hats, because of their sheer skill. I come across black hat methods constantly, and you HAVE to raise a smile when you work out what they are doing.
I'm in the camp of believing that SE spiders are computers so ethical/unethical are out of the window at that point. Anything done to increase the odds of your RELEVANT site coming up for RELEVANT search results is not unethical e.g. trading links, buying links, cloaking pages, etc. If you do things that devalue the internet's user experience, then that is a problem in my opinion. If you cloak a page and redirect to a porn site then you are hurting that visitor and is unethical in my opinion. Same thing with email spam and so on. But, I believe that most people play it too safe with their sites and may hurt themselves in the process (that's obviously their choice of course). People avoid recip. linking, buying text links, etc. because they think those are bad or unethical. Nonsense. And to the poster who said that people are spamming the SE's with multiple domains....everyone should be doing that if they are smart. Its casting a wide net and its a good way to diversify your traffic.
Dachers, cloaking is never going to be ethical though, as apart from anythying else it is directly against the Search engines terms of use. If you have to cloak a page to get it to rank, you are not showing the same content to the spider as the visitor, so why not just show the cloaked page? I totaly hear what you are saying, and of course there are times when some might argue it is ok, as in a 100% flash site serving up cloaked content. BUT here is the kicker, who are WE as the site owners to decide our site is the most relevant? You mention link trading, buying links etc, but they are not black hat at all, but I do not see how you can mention link trading and cloaking in the same sentence.
I hear what you are saying. In my opinion, I consider it fine if a flash site wants to cloak its page just to let the SE know what's on the page. I wouldn't even consider it unethical if I own a bocce ball site and cloak pages so they appear higher in the SERP's. At least in that case I'm delivering a result that is relevant to what the visitor is searching for. As long as you are delivering relevant content, then I don't really know how that can't be considered ethical since you aren't hurting the visitors experieince. Sure, its not a 'uniquely democrat vote' like Google wants, but neither is recipricol linking, buying text links, backlinks from articles, etc. I don't consider buying a text link really 'voting' for another site either. Its buying the vote. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, what's the difference between someone that goes out and buys 1000 text links to get to the top of the SERP's and the guy that cloaks to get there. They are both (assuming the cloak is related to his actual site) not getting links 'naturally'. What makes one site or the other deserving of that top spot? That being said, cloaking is a clear violation of a SE's TOS so if you would choose to do that then you accept the risk. Just my 2cents.