Ethical Search Engine
Optimization Explained
by Alan Perkins:
© 10-February-2005
http://www.silverdisc.co.uk
The
first article in this series looked at simple
definitions
of Black Hat and White Hat Search Engine Optimization
techniques, which I presented at the "Black
Hat, White Hat and Lots of Gray" session
at Chicago Search Engine Strategies in December
2004. During that session, I suggested that
Black Hat SEO techniques are unethical whereas
White Hat techniques are ethical. It seems that
many SEOs and potential clients are confused
by these labels. What
does "Ethical SEO" actually mean?
"Ethical SEO" applies
to SEO techniques, not to individual SEO practitioners.
It's important to make this distinction between
people and techniques. SEO practitioners may
behave ethically (or what they believe is ethically)
towards their clients. This does not mean that
their practises are ethical or in anyone's ultimate
interests but their own.
A range of strategies and
tactics are available in order to perform search
engine optimization. Which are ethical and which
are unethical?
Drawing upon the document
"A
Framework For Ethical Decision Making"
(from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
at Santa Clara University), the most ethical
SEO technique is the one that
- produces the most good and does the least harm
respects the rights and dignity of allstakeholders
and treats all stakeholders fairly
- promotes the common good
- helps all participate more fully in the goods
we share as a community and a society
- enables the deepening or development of those
virtues or character traits that we value as
individuals, professions and members of a society
Who are the stakeholders
in search marketing?
The search marketing stakeholders
are those who have something to gain or lose
as a result of search marketing taking place.
As such, there are four sets of stakeholders:
- Searchers
- Search Engines
- Site owners, their employees and their agents
- The Web as a whole
Searchers have something to
gain if they obtain the search results that
best match their queries and, consequently,
something to lose if they cannot do this. Therefore,
any aspect of search engine marketing (whether
perpetrated by search engines, site owners or
another party) that deliberately does not provide
searchers with search results that best match
their query is unethical from the searchers'
perspective. An example of unethical practises
in this area is advertisements masquerading
as objective search results - it's important
that advertisements are clearly labelled so
that searchers can tell when they are being
advertised to and when they are not.
Search engines have something
to gain if they can attract a market of searchers
that appreciates and trusts the search results
and will consequently keep coming back to the
search engine. Search engines have something
to lose – their market of searchers - if
they fail to deliver relevant, objective search
results or if they lose the trust of their searchers.
A site owner and everybody
that acts on behalf of that site owner (including
employees and agents) is a single stakeholder
when evaluating the ethics of various search
engine optimization techniques. It is for this
reason that arguments about the way clients
are treated by SEOs, although important in other
contexts, are redundant when evaluating ethical
optimization techniques – because, as far
as other stakeholders are concerned, the site
owner and their SEO are the same entity. Site
owners have something to gain by attracting
searchers (self-qualified, relevant traffic)
to their site, and they have the most to gain
if those searchers convert into something meaningful.
Conversions range from reading a message to
becoming a lifetime customer.
From a site owner's perspective,
the action that does the most good and the least
harm is the one that recognises the fundamental
reason why a site is not performing optimally
in search results; and fixes that fundamental
problem; thus improving the site, the search
results and the Web as a whole.
The action that does the least
good and the most harm is the deception of search
engines in order to achieve a placement in search
results that is not warranted by the content
that searchers see. This does not improve the
site; in addition, it worsens the search results,
and thereby the Web as a whole. Such actions
effectively remove the role of determining relevance
from the search engines, and place it instead
with site owners. When site owners use deception
to influence relevancy, the quality, diversity
and utility of search results is lost to deceptive
commercial influences.
The Web as a whole has something
to gain if search engines improve the quality,
diversity and utility of their search results,
and something to lose if search engines fail
to do this or are prevented from doing so. Search
engines are an important part of the information
architecture of the Web.
In order to provide the best
(or least worst) outcome, the roles and responsibilities
of the stakeholders are as follows:
Roles and Responsibilities
of Searchers
- Locate and use search engines
with results that best match their requirements
and personalities (demographic and psychographic
profiles)
- Use search modifiers and tools in order to tailor
search results to their exact requirements
- Have a basic awareness of technical issues
- Be able to recognise clearly labelled advertising
in search results
- Obey terms of service of the search engines
they use and the sites they visit
Roles and Responsibilities
of Search Engines
- Crawl and index the Web
- Don't place undue strain on Web servers
- Represent Web sites fairly in search results
- Obey and further develop robots standards
- Obtain a market of searchers
- Determine relevance of resources to queries
made by those searchers
- Provide good quality, trustworthy search results
with clearly labelled advertising (if any)
- Obey the law
Roles and Responsibilities
of Site Owners
- Provide a good quality Web site
designed to appeal to particular target markets
- Correct any fundamental problems with architecture,
accessibility, usability
- Write or rewrite the content to ensure suitability
for the target markets
- Make good use of the available robots standards
- Market the site using links designed for people
to see and follow
- Obey the terms of service of the search engines
and directories that site is submitted to
Within this ethical framework,
search engines are allowed to improve their
search results or die, to be replaced by better
search engines; the quality of Web sites in
the search results improves, benefiting the
owners of those Web sites to the detriment of
lower quality Web sites; searchers obtain better
results from search engines and are not deceived
by advertisements masquerading as search results;
and the Web as a whole is a better place. That
is the outcome of ethical search marketing.
When unethical, deceptive practises are deployed
the opposite happens. It is partly for this
reason that I believe the SEO industry is sleepwalking
towards disaster. Any industry that condones
actions that make the Web a worse place cannot
rely upon the long term support of the Web's
users.
The other reason I believe
that the SEO industry is sleepwalking towards
disaster is that many of the techniques it uses,
in addition to being unethical, are illegal.
My next article, Search Engine Optimization
and The Law, will examine this in more detail.
