I have been reading Business Ethics in Action by Domenec Mele and I wonder if there can be such a thing as an ethical business.

By its very nature, a business exists to make a profit.  The main aim of any Plc. is profit – if it is not the shareholders would be in revolt; however this is only in the case in English speaking countries.  Other countries view the social responsibility of their country’s businesses quite differently.

I work in search engine optimisation and this area can be unethical when giving information to clients.  I would go as far as saying that most SEO companies do their clients a disservice and create spam.  Is spam ethical?

In my business, I offer clients links from websites.  This entails having good articles written that will be published on other websites.  As we all know these types of links are great for increasing rankings in Google.

However the above does not compare well in clients eyes when they come across a website that says it will submit to 200 directories, 200 article directories, and 5 press release directories all for the same cost.  Really which would you choose?

I know I would choose the second, it just appears like I am going to get a lot more for my money than the over-priced consultant who comes at the top of the search engines – really does Google not know what they are doing?  These other sites with great deals should really be at the top.

Have they stopped and considered why it is not the case?  That just maybe the one at the top does know what they are doing?  And if they were working on your site you might just get what you want and that is results.

There is Nothing Wrong with Article Directories

Yes, and there is nothing wrong with a lot of directories either – the problem is how they are used.

Most companies take one article and give it to an outsourcer and have the same article submitted to all 200 directories.  If you are lucky you will get 2 or 3 links that count in Google’s eyes from this.  Seriously would you think that building links to your site is that easy?

The right way to use article directories is submit one article to each and make sure it get published, and then have a couple of links point towards that article – sounds like a lot more work I know, but this way it actually does pay off.

It is the same idea with directories.  Often the same blurb about your company and the same anchor text and url is submitted to 100’s.  What a waste.  On our training course I tell people to not have a pre-written blurb, every time you submit to a directory write the information about your company from scratch – this way you will have a chance of Google indexing the submission and not just seeing it as duplicate content.

Do You Get What You Pay for In SEO?

NO

So often in my life I have heard this saying that you get what you pay for, really it is a lot of crap.  If you are paying more than €500 per day for on-going SEO services have a think about what you are paying for.

I do make the distinction between one off consultancy and on-going services.  I know one consultant here in Ireland who charges a lot more than this for one day consultancy, but if he can list and show you how to fix all the issues on you site during that 1 or 2 days I think it is still more than worth the payment.

Well, that is today’s rant over with.  I have a cold and that is my excuse for the above slightly negative post. For something more positive, read our post on creative marketing strategies.