The SEO industry does not have a regulated license board, like a contractors state license board which protects consumers by regulating its industry. In SEO industry there are is no standardized testing like ones I and many others have had to pass to get a real estate salesperson license, as an example. SEO ethics code badge is a voluntary badge you choose to wear or not, as there is no seo ethics code that binds all SEO professionals. Sadly this is pretty much an unregulated industry. The good news is that there are still those that choose to wear the SEO ethics code badge, and in doing this we are not the only ones that wear this badge. We allow every one of our clients to wear the same badge, because at the end of the day, it is your own website that will be crawled by Google and all the other search engines. A website with ethical SEO practices will result in happy search engines. Happy search engines tend to reward you and not block or penalize you.

 

SEO Ethics Code:

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• We stick to all the laws set forth by the government agencies of United States, or respective international governments. We try our best to work with local clients, at this point we did not have to work with international business laws and practices. In the event that we do, we will comply with the respective regulations, and wear our SEO ethics code badge proudly.
• Provide realistic expectations on SEO and do not guarantee or promise SEO rankings.  A guarantee of something no one can control carries inherent ethical issues.
• DO NOT fill your footer with junk and/or hide your assets and content.
• DO NOT duplicate content across multiple domains.
• DO NOT sacrifice usability and quality for sole SEO purposes, that’s why we do user experience and web design
• DO NOT use Black Hat SEO methods, or aggressive SEO methods that focus on search engines and not a human audience. Black Hat SEO methods do not abide by the search engine guidelines.
• DO NOT practice keyword stuffing, irrelevant text insertion, or hidden links and text.
• Do NOT practice content spinning, or any other form of copied content. Including falsely claiming another’s work as our own.
• DO NOT participate in link farms, or link networks.
• DO NOT resubmit a website to many search engines repeatedly.  It is unnecessary in the first place, but when done is considered spam.
• DO NOT practice forum, Wiki, comment spam, or any other type of SPAM.
• DO NOT participate in cloaking to fool, use doorway pages, or manipulate the search engine crawlers.
• DO NOT disparage or bad-mouth other SEO companies or consultants in public even if they are wrong.
• DO NOT use any unauthorized software. Includes illegal pinging software etc.
• DO NOT use ‘false-click’ system to promote web sites.
• DO NOT make excessive use of search engines APIs that could potentially get an IP address banned.
• DO NOT promise something that is not achievable, but set achievable goals.
• DO NOT treat one client better than other based on payment, or preference, esp in conflict of interest between competition.
• DO NOT  misrepresent our abilities, certifications, or success.
• ALWAYS keep our clients information confidential and private: 0% games, 100% privacy. This includes the access to documents, login information, and other sensitive data.
• ALWAYS follow the rules and guidelines of major search engines like Google.
• ALWAYS abide by non-compete clause when necessary. A lot of SEO professionals debate this, but it’s not ethical to optimize competing sites against each other.
• ALWAYS keep up to date with up to date SEO methods and practices.
• ALWAYS present ourselves in an honorable and respectful manner to our clients, and co-workers.
• ALWAYS conduct business with integrity and honesty.
• ALWAYS act in clients best interest. Never engage in actions that will intentionally harm a client. Never engage in actions that will intentionally harm the competitor, too.
• ALWAYS do our best job to increase or retain rankings of our clients.

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This list is by no means all-inclusive. This also does not mean it is set in stone, as SEO methods, search engine algorithms, and spam policies change.  This post should, however, tell you  that we take our clients, competitors, and this industry seriously. Because, we still really like our SEO ethics badge and want to continue wearing it.

 

Our Track Record, and why we still wear our SEO ethics code Badge

Sticking to the above practices, we can proudly say that:
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• Our clients were never blocked or penalized by Google or any other major search engines, based on the work we have done.
• When clients come to us, its like a two-way interview where we interview you as you interview us. We carefully choose who we work with. As a result,  our clients were never accused for un-ethical practices.
• As much as we like our seo ethics code badge we don’t consider that our reward. Our clients satisfaction is our reward!

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Remember…

 

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Relevance and Trust is the NEW SEO // David Harry

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