Ethical SEO? What you need to know!

In recent times, a few unethical SEO companies have burnt the fingers of innocent businesses and given the industry a bad name through their unethical marketing efforts and their attempts to unjustly influence search engine results.

4Ps Marketing is proud to offer effective ethical search engine optimisation, with the long term benefits of our clients always in mind. As this is currently a hot topic, we have decided to put a few tips together that help you distinguish between an SEO company that will ethically improve your site for long term rewards and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether.

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Search Engines

Beware of the so called SEO companies that claim to guarantee top rankings. The simple fact is that there are too many aspects that rank your site to always be placed at number 1, hence guaranteeing you a top placement in a search engine is simply untrue.

Make sure you find out what the SEO company intend to do

Get a detailed plan of how the SEO company is going to ethically get your site visible in all the search rankings. Ask for explanations if something is unclear. Unless the SEO company create relevant & targeted content, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. At the end of the day it is your responsibility to make sure that you are clear of the SEO companies’ intentions for your site.

Are they the Real Deal?

There are always clear warning signs that you may be dealing with an unethical SEO company. It's far from a comprehensive list, but if you have any other questions please contact us and we’d be happy to help

• owns shadow domains
• puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
• offers to sell keywords in the address bar
• doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results
• guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
• operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
• gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
• has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google

(Source: Google Help Centre)

Choose wisely

Here at 4Ps Marketing, we pride ourselves first and foremost on being a marketing company. We enter into a relationship when we deal with our clients because we want all parties to benefit. SEO can be a highly effective tool, BUT only if done in the right way.