SEO Ethics: Which Hat To Wear - Are ethics important in SEO?
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Are ethics and ethical discussions even of value in the discussion of SEO--or in any other profession or business for that matter? Some would say the obvious and unarguable answer is yes. Other people are not so sure, while some SEO practitioners would say that ethics are not all that important, provided the client receives strong search engine rankings. As we can see, there are no definite answers.
Since an SEO professional has in effect two clients, there is really more than one set of ethics involved. First, there is the ethics in relationship to the website owner client. Second, and also very much a part of the ethical question, are the search engines themselves. Since the needs and requirements of the two clients are often diametrically opposed to one another, an SEO often experiences a dilemma.
The SEO practitioner has a responsibility to the website owner to attempt to achieve the highest possible search engine rankings. He must also consider the search engine webmaster guidelines. Where the search engine optimization professional draws the boundaries between website and search engines, and how those boundaries are explained to the website owner, is very important.
The SEO professional must also hold a serious discussion with the website owner concerning his client's real goals, and what level of penalty and banning risk that person is willing to assume. Not very professional SEOs will go as far as the webmaster wants to travel into grey and black hat territory. Different experts have different interpretations of where the boundaries between the search engine guidelines end and where the needs of the website owner begin.
Personally, I do not use any search engine optimization techniques that could be classified as black or even grey hat. My ethics allow for only purely white hat SEO methods. Not all SEO professionals, or even potential paying clients, agree with that ethical stance. In fact, many SEOs disagree completely with my position on ethics.
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