General Discussions

**stOx** · 07-03-2006, 12:44 PM

It's just a hypothetical question.
I'm sorry if the prospect of imagining a situation you haven't previously encountered confused you, but it isnt bound by what has or has not previously happened with other "black hat" SEO methods, It's not a risk assesment and it's not about your willingness to throw away your kids college fund.

The question is basically, If you could get very rich very easily at the expence of others would you do it. It's no more complicated than that.

**DaveMo~** · 07-04-2006, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stOx

And i don't believe that anyone who says they wouldn't are telling the truth. I don't see any good reason to not do it..

Well, I answered "no" to that before I read the entire thread. And I'm not sure if you meant what you said in that quote, or if it's a mis-typing.

Anyway, since Spam is associated as bad, I'd try to stay away from it as much as possible. The more that this thread developed, the better the spamming looked, like not getting caught, getting rich, etc. It's the same with most moral issues; if you can get by without getting caught, then sometimes the morals are lowered. I guess what I'm getting at is that if you continue to play with fire, sooner or later, you'll get burnt.

Quote:

The question is basically, If you could get very rich very easily at the expence of others would you do it. It's no more complicated than that.

The way this clarification statement is made, it seems that it's in a negative light about using others. Again, this gets to a moral question. I still say "no". And I hope I never use others in a negative or illegal way for my own gain.

One thing to note is that I am human and can make mistakes. So I'm not saying that I'm above making a mistake, even though I haven't made one since January of 1998......okay, just kidding about that last part!

Dave

**stOx** · 07-04-2006, 10:47 AM

Are you really worried about taking sales and visitors from your competition though?
I don't see any difference between normally optimising a site for search engines and using a method only you know about. Unless you go round your competitors sites and tell them where they are going wrong and offer them tips that would increase thier SERPS, do you do that?

Normal SEO is at the expence of others. If you are going up the SERPS, someone else needs to be going down. So if you are trying to manipulate the google algo with your titles, h1 tags and page layout, shouldn't you be feeling equally guilty than if you were using an "seo" method only you know about?

Think of it like this, If you were the only person who knew the importance of h1 tags, would you not use them?

**johnnyappleseed** · 07-09-2006, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stOx

I happened to stumble accross an old thread on HighRankings in which the Administrator, Jill, Posed an interesting question.

The question asked was this;
If you found a way to get a guarenteed top 10 place every time in google with any site, But by using a method that would be considered search engine spam, Would you do it?

I think the true question is kinda like what Anacrusis is saying. If you found a way to get a guarenteed top 10 place every time in google with any site, AND NOT GET CAUGHT OR PENALIZED, But by using a method that would be considered search engine spam, Would you do it?

And, yeah I think I would.

Does that make me Evil?

**vangogh** · 07-10-2006, 12:47 AM

As hard as it may be to believe I'd say no as well. Even if there was no way to get caught I still believe in things like karma and just don't believe in trying to cheat people. I think you can still take customers from the competition in honest ways simply by being better than they are.

Of course I could still envision scenarios where I would hypothetically spam the engines. If I was truly desparate to keep my business afloat or in some dire financial situtation then sure. I'd probably rationalize in a Jean Valjean kind of way stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family, but there are certainly scenarios where I would.

It's one of those questions for me though that's really hard to answer unless I was actually in the situation where I had the choice. I'd like to think I would say no, but who knows.