[Air-l] Protection against unethical practices in search engine optimization?

[elijah wright]

> For example, a business hires a SEO (search engine optimization) company 
> for a 3 months contract. The company performs optimization so that it 
> has complete control over it. This means it can turn the results off 
> with a click if the business has any intention of getting out of the 
> contract at the end of 3 months. This is in my book highly unethical. 
> There is a severe lack of information in this area to educate business 
> owners and help them make a wise decision.
>
> The internet is being marketed as a "level-playing field" where the 
> small guys can compete with the big boys but it is precisely these small 
> companies who are at their most vulnerable. An unhappy experience with 
> an unethical SEO provider can mean short to medium term financial 
> difficulties.

consider that the only reason (as far as I know) to hire a search engine 
optimization company is to have your business's actual importance 
misrepresented to the users of services like google.

does this start to sound like electronic fraud, yet?

personally i feel very little pity for 'customers' of SEO companies. 
they get what they pay for (often quite literally).

elijah