Explanation and Details

In general, ethical search engine marketing means two things: (1) working with the top search engines to help them in their mission to satisfy searchers, and not trying to "game" the engines by using such tricks as IP cloaking, rapid redirects, and orphaned doorway pages; and (2) focusing SEO efforts on what human viewers can see in your web pages.

The most important part of SEO is your site's copy writing -- what both humans and search engines value most. Some less visible text is treated to SEO, like keyword meta-tags, HTML titles, file and folder names, alt tags, and the like, but ethical SEO never abuses hidden or semi-hidden text placement.

How can you evaluate the ethics of an SEM firm? Here are some guidelines:

Client List. How many clients are listed? Does the list specify what was done for each client, or merely list companies' names? (The firm may have done very little SEM for a given "client.")

Proof of Results. A good SEM firm should also be willing to email you reports for any previous customers.

References. When buying any service, take the time to speak with several references.

Tactics. If you are concerned about ethical behavior, you should shun firms that engage in SEO tactics forbidden by the search engines. These practices include IP cloaking, various rapid redirects, orphaned doorway pages, and multiple duplicate or semi-duplicate web sites or pages.

"Guarantees." If one reads the fine print on most placement guarantees, it is usually apparent that the firm's ethics are lacking. For example, some firms use Pay-Per-Click, rather than SEO, to get "guaranteed" placement for which you pay dearly with each click. We at DISC have seen other deceptions in the fine print. Even if the firm is trying to be honest in their attempt at guarantees, it is a misguided, and ultimately unethical, approach. Here's why:

(1) They are not motivated to bring you enduring success; a fleeting boost is all they need to get a per word payment from you. (2) They are nearly always biased to guarantee phrases that are less popular and thus easier to position for, rather than the most relevant and competitive phrases that are critical to your business. (3) Some contracts require ongoing payment for maintaining strong position, whereas legitimate SEO done right the first time brings benefits you own in perpetuity. (4) By focusing on a handful of words for short-term positioning, guarantee-firms fail to create a diversified linguistic portfolio that can position many other relevant words and phrases. Succinct, relevant, yet varied language is most likely to endure the search engines' future fine-tunings (for example, latent semantic indexing).

Off-Shore Subcontracting. It's understandable to off-shore programming tasks but not SEO, which demands a high level of verbal acumen that very few non-native speakers have developed. (It's even difficult to find Americans who loved college English courses enough to tackle SEO.)

Do-It-Alls. Avoid the one-person firm who claims to be able to do it all well. SEM is complicated and impinges on so many different areas of expertise -- programming, HTML, copywriting, graphic design, server log analysis, ROI bid management of PPC campaigns, conversion rate optimization, etc. -- that it is hardly credible if not outright unethical for a one-person shop to claim complete professional SEO services.