Comments on: What happened to ethics? SEOs that hide their methods and mislead clients

By: Steven Snell

Steven Snell — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:27:23 +0000

I’ve had people approach me about buying text links on particular pages, and I suspect this is their situation. I decided against it in all cases, and I’m glad I did. Thanks for the info.

By: Response to Terry Brock Article on Internet Marketing

Response to Terry Brock Article on Internet Marketing — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:05:27 +0000

[...] another story. Anyway, you know that I recently wrote an article about SEO ethics entitled “What happened to ethics? SEOs that hide their methods and mislead clients” so obviously I do feel that there are some clear issues in the Internet Marketing industry. [...]

By: vfielding

vfielding — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:56:13 +0000

Great article, excellent points. Regarding the money associated with being honest, we’ve found that it comes slower, but stays much, much longer! Keep the faith all ye of high intergity!

By: Marc Ashwell » Blog Archive » links for 2007-09-23

Marc Ashwell » Blog Archive » links for 2007-09-23 — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:23:09 +0000

[...] SEOs that Mislead Clients | SEO Ethics | Misleading Some SEOs, consultants, and agencies hide their methods and ultimately mislead their clients. How do they do this? (tags: business clients seo) [...]

By: Kay

Kay — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 15:52:53 +0000

Very spot on. I cringed at the outsourcing bit. I had to sit in a meeting and listen to a new client being told we dont outsource. Talk about beig put into a difficult situation. The client didn’t even ask if we outsourced, this guy just said it. We absolutely do outsource and we wouldnt manage if we didnt. I develop the strategy, manage the SEO, do all the onsite/onpage work and I outsource certain tasks with a very tight reign. As far as I’m concerned it’s better having those tasks performed by a specialist company than spending more money hiring in trainees and juniors with zero experience who last 6 months.

Another thing that struck a chord is that honesty doesn’t seem to make you money in the SEO world. I often tend to have a bit of a scrap with new clients while I go through all their misconceptions and tell them the truth about what I’m going to do, how long it could take and the things that are impossible to predict. “Bbut my friend who is an IT whizz said blah blah blah”…hmmm so why have you come to me and not him? what feel like I’m fighting with new clients. I’m always being asked if I’m a millionaire…I wonder how different my finances would be if I weren’t so ‘ethical’. I keep trying to go dark but my mouth won’t let me

By: What happened to ethics? SEOs that hide their methods and mislead clients

What happened to ethics? SEOs that hide their methods and mislead clients — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:05:37 +0000

[...] Some SEOs, consultants, and agencies hide their methods and ultimately mislead their clients. How do they do this? By not disclosing or blatantly lying about their methods used to obtain rankings and/or traffic. Why do they do this? Short-sighted thinking… Read this very informative article here >> [...]

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:12:57 +0000

I think all your stuff is spot on. I don’t disapprove of outsourcing–as long as it’s vetted and approved and the work is still up to quality standards, I see no reason why you shouldn’t outsource.

By: bhancock

bhancock — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:33:12 +0000

Thanks for the comments guys. You can get more details on paid inclusion on the Yahoo site at: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srchsb/index.php

The program is administered by PositionTech.com

By: john

john — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:25:03 +0000

this article is so true and well written. Congrats!

I never heard before of the yahoo paid natural listings (actually I did once but couldn’t believe it)
Is that really true? Seems so hard to believe…

By: Jenny

Jenny — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:35:44 +0000

Found your site through Steve’s Forum. This was a very informative article. Thanks! I particularly was interested in what you had to say regarding traffic. I’ll definitely be back.