More SEO Ethics Issues

Last week I blogged about unethical search engine optimization practices we uncovered while getting a new SEO client going. Actually, it was more SEO fraud, as the “service provider” was charging their client but actually sabotaging them. Fraud’s more the word for it.

Anyhoo, today we established a new relationship with a local modular home builder. We’ll be taking over their website maintenance and search engine optimization. Heck of a great guy, the owner, and I look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship.

His current site is terrific, his previous webmaster did a fantastic job of building a great site. Good usability, great on page seo, nice clean design. Just wonderful.

Except… the previous guy built a directory site “on his client’s behalf” – “to optimize the client’s site.” Except, the webmaster owns that site himself. And it outranks the client’s site. And it’s monitized.

Sorry, but I smell a rat.

Rebekah and I have daily conversations about our “high bar” approach in one way or another. I’ve been told plently of times that I leave money on the table by not running with stuff other web developers would.

But I have to sleep at night.

I’m sorry, but using the knowledge you gain in an industry, while being paid by a client, developing traffic network sites for fee… You just DON’T turn around and take that to outdo your client. Maybe the laws haven’t caught up with technology for now, but to me it’s fraudulant.

High bar or not. I sleep well.

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May 21st 2007 Posted to Search Engine Optimization | Comments(0) | Email This Post Email This Post

Ethical SEO

Today I was working on a SEO client’s website and made some very startling discoveries. Our client had been previously paying another person for optimizing their site. Obviously the client was not getting good results, which is why they are now with us.

This person who they had been paying actually built and manages multiple sites in the same niche, and is being paid to optimize them all. The original site ranks #1 for the top keyword phrase.

It is a BIG MISTAKE to hire someone that’s already working for all of your main competitors, who has longer relationships and more loyalty to those competitors. Really, that should be common sense. Our client told me they were paying over twice as much as the others, and that while the others were bunched up in the top 10, they were way below that. He was flabbergasted as to why that could be. Really, so was I.

I knew that the fella doing their optimization had to be up to something, and boy was he. Despite the hundreds of dollars a month being paid to him, I have found no evidence he did anything good. And worse, I found evidence he was doing BAD stuff. No, uh uh, not black hat even. I mean he appears to have been actively sabotaging the client!

1st – the most basic onpage optimization was not fully executed on the client’s website. Strike one.

2nd – there were very few links to the site. Actually around 50, and the other sites had hundreds. Strike two.

3rd – funny business in the .htaccess file. This server file was set up to redirect traffic AWAY from the client’s website if it were coming from any number of sources, including some small search engines, directories, and even myspace.com. We seriously think that any time the “SEO service provider” found a backlink into the site, he must have gone into the .htaccess file to discount it.

This whole thing made me feel sick to my stomach. On the other hand, we now have even more of a burning desire to blow the others away in the SERPs (search engine rankings). And the jerk who was ripping off our client, we can’t wait to KICK HIS A$$!

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May 14th 2007 Posted to Search Engine Optimization | Comments(0) | Email This Post Email This Post