I emailed some SEOs I respect and asked them if they could answer one of two questions for me:

What are the top five ethical issues all SEOs should keep in mind?

or

What are the top five ethical problems you see in regards to SEO

Here are some responses from:

• Matt McGee
• Michael Gray
• Jeff Quipp
• Jim Hedger
• Todd Mintz
• Marty Weintraub
• Barry Welford
• Dazzlin’ Donna Fontenot

Matt McGee

I don’t have a “Top 5 Ethical Issues/Questions” when it comes to SEO and online marketing. I’m a big believer in the Golden Rule, and I try to act that way with friends, clients, co-workers … you name it. So,
to me, the primary issues in search marketing that could be considered questions of ethics are:

1. What types of clients/sites are you willing or not willing to take
on?

That’s a personal decision, or perhaps a corporate decision, and I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer that applies across the board.

2. What types of tactics are you willing and not willing to use?

Personally, there are certain marketing tactics that I don’t like and won’t provide, but if the client wants to pursue them, my job is to make sure they understand the possible consequences and let them find
someone else to work with if they want to go forward.

3. Are you completely honest with your clients?

I think it’s imperative to tell clients everything, and to make sure they understand everything that’s going on, good and bad, with their marketing dollars.

Michael Gray

Overlapping Clients – If you have multiple clients in the same sector deciding who gets the idea or plan

Who’s the Boss – After advising a client something is a bad idea and they insist on doing it that way anyway, how far do you go to stop them from shooting themselves in the foot

What Color Hat – in competitive sectors where the competition is pushing the line with search engine guidelines how risky are you willing to let a client play

Variable Pricing – Do you charge more for the same level of service if the client is in a high profit business

Going Public – How public do you want to be with your client list, is everything kept behind lock and key even if the exposure might benefit the client

Jeff Quipp

Top 5 ethical issues all SEOs should keep in mind:

1. if you’re using a questionable SEO tactic, is the client aware of the risks and has he/she accepted them?

Answer – clients should be made aware of all risks associated with SEO, and particular SEO tactics. Often, lower cost SEO solutions involve the use of more questionable tactics … so the client should be permitted to make educated decisions when such risks are involved.

2. is education a fundamental component of an SEOs/SEMs offerings, or is it just good business to continue to propogate search myths (such as the need for ‘submission services’) and take advantage of unsophisticated clients?

Answer – such unethical companies have given the industry a black eye, and almost never succeed in the long term. Accordingly, part of our role as SEOs is to educate clients, and to include the compensation for such education in our fees.

3. if you set up paid search programs for clients, and a client exits an agreement early, who owns the effort (the client or the SEM)?

Answer – this is likely to generate heated debate, but my personal view is that essentially if the client adheres to the terms of the agreement and its cancellation terms, then essentially the client has paid for your time, and the effort to date should be owned by the client.

4. with ratings and reviews becoming more prevalent in search results and more important in the purchase process, is it questionable for an SEO to devise strategies to generate positive ratings and reviews?

Answer – my personal thought; so long as the reviews are given by real people, tactics designed to encourage or incent such ratings and reviews are just good business. Artificially creating ratings and reviews with fake profiles and the like cross an ethical boundary.

5. If a client in a given industry cancels, are any ethical boundaries being crossed if the SEO/SEM takes what he’s learned from the client, to springboard to becoming a professional affiliate in the space?

Answer – very difficult to answer. I suppose most of this is answered by the terms of the initial agreement with the client re NDAs and non-compete agreements

Jim Hedger

1.) Spammy email client solicitations.

Good SEOs don’t use email to gain clients. Those that do cheapen the industry.

2.) Full disclosure and education of clients.

SEOs owe the client a full explanation of what is being done on their site or in their name. Basic SEO training should be an important value-add from our sector so no client gets left confused or feeling burned.

3.) Fair value for fees charged

I’ve recently heard stories about an A-list SEO vendor buying site-wide links off the same lists of websites for competing clients, (basically charging client “B” for work previously delivered to client “A”). I was careful to ascertain that this was done in the process of link-building, not as a strategic advertising buy. Aside from the can-o-worms opened in buying such links, this extremely well known firm has (imho) set both clients up for a potential nasty surprise while making double the money.

4.) Doing Unto Others

This is an important ethical issue. The tightness of the community is one of its greatest strengths. I know the SEO/SEM community on a number of unique levels from personal to small/medium business to mega-corp. Ultimately, we are an industry built on honestly sharing information and assistance with each other. This is an important tone to keep in the industry as we move into an era in which search and Internet marketers become digital advertising agencies and consultants. Kindness and honesty are ethical issues as well as values shared by the majority of people I’ve met at all levels of the industry.

Todd Mintz

Ethical Problems:

1.) Doing non-white hat tactics on client sites without informed consent & full disclosure.

I agree with Aaron Wall that SEO techniques (aside from hacking sites to inject links) should be judged by their level of effectiveness and not by any moral standard. We all learn by pushing the envelope to see what happens (on our own sites). However, only safe, white hat techniques should be practiced on client sites (with the only exception outlined above). SEO’s who risk somebody’s professional livelihood by stupidly spamming the search engines should get publically slapped.

2.) Selling services that are of little or no value (e.g. Search Engine Submission, Meta Tag Optimization).

It amazes me that people still get sucked into buying these services. Quality SEO does not cost less than taking the family to the movies.

3.) Guaranteeing Top Search Engine Rankings. Folks who offer this service either get client rankings for valueless search terms or achieve them via PPC.

Nobody can guarantee top natural search rankings for competitive terms and lot of people seem to be suckered by this sales pitch.

4.) Defining success in a way that doesn’t include a business purpose.

So, the client got higher rankings on some search terms? Who cares? Did they get more leads? Did they make more sales? Those are the metrics that matter. Better rankings aren’t important unless they lead to increased business.

5.) Selling SEO services in a vacuum.

Many sites that need SEO also need design work & copywriting help in order to optimize their web presence. A good SEO needs to be able to detect non-SEO problems and communicate their urgency to the client. Without getting critical non-SEO issues addressed, the client won’t achieve optimum results.

Marty Weintraub

What are the top five ethical issues all SEOs should keep in mind?

1. SEM is about ruling tactics in or out as profitable or not. Foster a holistic environment of supportive candor and report failures as clearly as victories.

2. Never make hyperbolic promises you can’t reasonably keep. Take time to teach clients what they need to know to understand your explanations. Teach clients that old tools that measure absolute rankings don’t work anymore.

3. Refer clients to vendors who are better qualified when a specialist is truly needed.

4. Money is less important than community standing. Be motivated by the “good” you can do for your clients, not getting the most from them. Disengage from clients you can’t help. Never take jobs “just for the money.” There is plenty of work, good for you, out there.

5. Teach clients NOT to Spam. Manipulate to Serve and Don’t Pee in the Pool!

What are the top five eithical problems you see in regards to SEO?

Predatory Jerks Give SEO a Bad Name

The contradiction and potential conflicts of interest surrounding commission based PPC fee models

Barry Welford

‘What are the top five ethical problems you see in regards to SEO?

1. If your competition is using black-methods (counter to the Search Engine Terms of Service) that seem to work for them, should you do the same?

2. If your competition is using black-methods (counter to the Search Engine Terms of Service) that seem to work for them, should you report them to the Search Engines?

3. If a website owner asks you to do what is necessary to lower the ranking of a competitor’s website, should you accept the project?

4. If you have methods of improving ranking that are against the Search Engines TOS but which seem most unlikely to be caught, should you use them?

5. Should you tell your customer about any risks involved with the SEO methods you are using?

Dazzlin Donna Fontenot

Three years ago, I wrote a post entitled Ethical SEO – A DazzlinDonna Definition (http://www.seo-scoop.com/2005/02/19/ethical-seo-a-dazzlindonna-definition//) that essentially boiled SEO ethics down to one thing… being completely upfront with a client so that he/she fully understands any risks involved with any technique that is less than bright-white. But, three years have gone by, and I think that I could come up with more than 1 ethical problem now, so here goes.

What are the top five ethical problems you see in regards to SEO?

1. When working with a client’s site, no potentially harmful techniques should be used, unless the client fully understands the risks involved, and you are comfortable taking those risks with someone else’s site. The key here is giving the client complete information so that an informed decision can be made.

2. Never deceive users or search engines into thinking they are going to a site about one thing, but they end up on a site about another. In other words, don’t lead anyone to believe the link they are about to click will lead them to a page about Disney’s Bambi, when really it is about Bambi Does Disneyland.

3. Never destroy someone else’s property. It is wrong to engage in the practice of injecting hidden text/links into someone else’s site, and/or defacing or changing someone else’s site. If this isn’t illegal, it should be.

4. Never misrepresent your abilities. You cannot promise a particular ranking, so just don’t go there.

5. Those are my top 4. However, I do think Bruce Clay’s Code of Ethics page is probably a good list to follow, so feel free to lump that entire set into this #5 listing. (http://www.bruceclay.com/web_ethics.htm)

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So there are some great thoughts and opinions all SEO’s should keep in mind. I have one other person that may send me his thoughts. I will create another post if he does.

Melissa- SEOAware.com