Black hat SEO - unethical or ethical?

Some says that Blackhat SEOs are unethical, some says it is not. But I want to know if how do you define BH.

 

Ha ha ha... I just mentioned this 2 ya.. but one more time

This is not about ethics....

If you do BH techniques on a client's site without their knowlege - it is unethical. Anything else? Forget it.

It is simply against the SEs TOS - since when were the SEs the moral authority on setting what is ethical?

SEO = Search Engine Oportunist

 

Is shouting at someone impolite/rude - or unethical? I would hold SEO categorization in the same light.

 

Ethical or unethical depends on your own views..some would think Marketing itself is unethical and what not. I use BH for experimental purposes...(just got too much thrill) but building a business on BH...a little shady I must say...

 

Side Note; you don't build a business with BH really.. (or U shouldn't) They (as you know) are throw away sites


You know what's unethical?

Google bans BMW for a week
Only gave a warning to ePinions and Shopping.com

Both have been nabbed by G for BH stuff....

If you or I did it? hmmm 6 months? a year maybe?

 

Every SEO is blackhat, because it's against the rules to make your site list higher in the SERP's from google.

 

I agree ... most SEO's spend more time trying to legally spamdex than the BlackHats yet they tend to think they're better?

Bottom line is -- as NdO said -- there is no true "Ethical" SEO.

 

Its just a bad way to do SEO in any case. Do what your conscience says! It will tell you to do whats right.

 

Black Hat is a bit like White Hat - a huge field with hundreds of techniques - it's hard to generalise. Approaches vary on a scale from darn right unethical and misleading.....to a bit opportunistic. Everyone has to make their own calls, and live with them. I don't think there'd be any/many who wouldn't agree that nasty full on spamming processes should be treated harshly by G, but there's a bunch of other middle ground, and I wouldn't feel comfy telling others where they need to draw that line. Anyway - it all makes for good, passionate debate haha.

Onto another BH:

Bill Hicks: "All those people in the audience who work in Marketing.... kill yourself....seriously" hahahahaha.

 

I couldnt agree more, not to mention again that the big name sites like BMW can get away with black hatting. oh it makes me like the mad hatter when I hear that!

 

It depends on what you are doing. Most black hat is no worse than white hat seo, just far more automated.

 

See - now there's a guy we should hear from. What's up 1eight? Remember me?

What R your thoughts on this whole 'ethical' stance? I assume your itimately familiar with both sides ( as am I ).

I think it's a bit far to bring ethics and morality even into the discussion...

I would actually appreciate yer thoughts on this one

 

I do remember you. Hope all is well.

I've done both white and black hat marketing for a number of years. Both have their place. As most know, doing white hat seo can take months or years. This doesn't cut it in todays competitive market. I speed the process up with black hat methods while still working on long term seo at the same time.

White hat seo guys will spend hours sending out thousands of unsolicited e-mails asking for link exchanges to rank better for a given term. I automate the process and post the links. I don't hit the same domains over and over, and it's completely within the site owners power to remove the link. Blog owners and such that offer PUBLIC spaces to post links should expect people to post links there. How is that unethical?

As for the search engines, I could go on for days. Who elected them the internet police? I wrote a blog post about my feelings on that subject. You can read it here if you like. http://www.simplifiedsec.com/seoblog/?p=10

 

who give a crap about fake ethics made up by search engines

when you see someone talking about ethics and hats they are usually newbies or self-proclaimed white hat seos trying to sell seo services

 

That's just it. Webmasters give too much weight to the search engines. Look at the posts here to see what I mean. How many times have you read a post with someone saying their entire domain was wiped out by a new google update? This can be the life work for some of these people, yet it was wiped out in a matter of seconds because of a mathematical change to an algorithm. If anything, the ethics behind those changes are questionable. I would rather spend my time finding out what the search engines like, automating it and sending it to them in mass.

 

You know something.. I am a bit of a hard ass.. and gave U some grief in the past.. but I have been astounded by some of the comments directed at BHatters over the last few days here... ( I don't get out of the Google/SEO boards much)

I will put this post in my SEO Forum News.. and likely even a little props on the main page for your article.... everyone deserves a voice...

I have great respect for Matt as well as Earl - I don't take sides anymore. They are both smart folks in their respective worlds... You and I may have clashed (a bit) in the past... but that was the specifics of the program...

Now - do you agree with the statement that the only 'unethical' SEO is applying BH techniques without a clients knowledge? I can't see any other way it is unethical

BTW - the gang at syndk8 had a thread for the best descirption of Black Hat .. my entry was

SEO=Search Engine Oportunist

 

Definitely no hard feelings here. I was upset with the misunderstanding with Earl because I too have a great deal of respect for the guy. Hopefully that is all water under a bridge so to speak.

I will agree with you about the lack of ethics involved when a company performs black hat, or really any type of fringe seo and applies it to a clients domain without them being aware. I've seen people fired over it in the past, and honestly they deserved it. Never do anything shady on a white hat domain that you can't afford to lose. Instead use throw away domains.

I like your definition of SEO, I may use that in the future .

If you do post this on your blog i'll give you a link back. I'm sure my readers would be interested in the discussion.

 

Well, I suggest you amend this with "or the technique is illegal" - like brining down your competition with a bot net or something. Otherwise, I totally agree -> SEO is SEO and trying to characterize some techniques as "white hat" and others as "black hat" seems to make the practitioners feel better about themselves more than anything.

 

I wonder what was unethical that got the OP banned.

 

True..there are nefarious BH folks that team up with hackers.. so that's a bit hacker/part BHatter... hacking is illegal.. so that I can live with ... certainly

( hey P - nice 2 cya)