Is Search Engine Optimization Ethical?
This blog entry was posted on October 26, 2009.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a series of techniques used to get a website ranked well for a particular keyword phrase or for multiple phrases. But is SEO manipulation of the search engines and therefore unethical? I had this posed as a comment recently on one of my older blog postings. This got me thinking about this at a philosophical level.
By its very nature, SEO is manipulation. Keywords are selected based on how people search. Phrases that are searched most often are given preference because they will attract the most visitors. These phrases are used in prominent places such as Title tags, heading tags, body text and in hyperlinks. So yes, SEO does manipulate the document to be compliant with what the search engines are looking for. It is about getting SEO results.
But is manipulation unethical? I believe intent is critical here. If the word manipulation or SEO more clearly communicates the message at the heart of the web page or the blog posting, then in my opinion “NO”, it is not unethical. If there is no intent to deceive, then NO, this is not unethical. It is smart marketing to clearly communicate your message to both the search engines and to your visitors.
I do agree that SEO CAN be used for unethical purposes to attract visitors to a page that has no relevance to what searchers are looking for. For the web page owner, what good does this do them? If you arrive to a page that is not what you are looking for, then you are gone in a quick click of your mouse.
Purists argue that SEO is artificial and comparable to tinkering with the genetic code of an unborn child. It would be like genetically changing the sex or appearance of the unborn baby.
I am interested in your opinion. Is SEO ethical?
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Filed under: SEO Strategies
This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 4:59 am and is filed under SEO Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.No Comments
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yeah really it is very useful .
thank you for the posting and keep going on.
Comment by web design and seo — October 28, 2009 @ 7:57 pm