“A Bucks A Buck” Regardless How You Make It, Correct? Well Yes, That’s True, But There’s A Saying “Don’t Kill The Goose That Lays The Golden Egg”. Perhaps Ethics Do Have A Place In Internet Commerce And Marketing After All!!
If you were interested in athletics in the eighties you will surely remember Benjamin Sinclair Johnson or Ben Johnson to most people. Johnson was a Jamaican born runner who immigrated to Canada in 1976, and subsequently became one of their top sprinters. At the same time an American named Carl Lewis was unbeatable at the world sprinting and long jump meetings. In the late eighties the enmity between the two came to a head at the Montreal Olympics. Having lost to Lewis earlier in the year, Johnson still promised that he would beat Lewis at the Olympics in September.
Of course history is written now, and the result on the day went to Ben Johnson. He beat Lewis with a new world record time of 9.79 seconds. Carl Lewis, the world champion, and without fail the best sprinter worldwide for the last few years, could only produce a time of 9.92 seconds. The disparity of 0.13 seconds was so huge, that inevitably, doubts were raised about enhanced performance techniques. He was as expected tested for drugs and 3 days later, that shiny gold medal and world record was revoked.
Over his long-term career, Lewis accumulated 9 golds in the Olympics, 8 Golds in the World Championships, and even starred in films. Today, he has significant advertising deals with various companies. In contrast Johnson had no gold medals to illustrate his efforts, and he tried unsuccessfully to use his notoriety, to fund a less than clean lifestyle thereafter.
So what was the end game for the both of them? Was it a top podium place, and all the admirationand “immortality” that went with winning an Olympic gold medal? More likely, the end game was the vast prosperity from subsequent endorsements and advertising deals for the lucrative sportswear market. Lewis famously stated in 1979 – “I want to be a millionaire and I don’t ever want a real job”.
Lewis was not just good. He was good enough NOT to have to cheat!! This can be analogized with other parts of life and trade. A good illustration of this is the Search Engine Optimization Company and the types of behaviour the industry has penned as “White Hat” and “Black Hat” techniques. In other words, are you going to trick and abuse the industry and the clientele that put food on your table, or are you in it for the long term and keen to build a standing for reputable Online Marketing and Search Engine Placement.
Black Hat companies will declare that the internet society make policies which are not enforceable, and who really gets a choice on what is right or wrong anyway! I return to the example above. If everybody cheated then what would be the sense in participating. every person has a code of ethics they stand by and everybody does to some degree recognize right from wrong. Search Engine Optimization Company are just like any other company. They have choices they can make, they have a culture and ethos they work to. Black Hat companies will also say that, if quickest and easiest way to obtain the best Search Engine Placement with Google, is to use Black Hat techniques, then why not use them. However if you end up deceiving the Search Engine Algorithm, by indicating that the text content will be seen on a web page, when in fact it won’t, or that links will be followed to or from a page when in fact they won’t, then how believablewill you be the next time a customer uses that web site.
The best way is most likely not the quick and easiest way, but it is the most enduring way for the client, the Search Engine companies and the Search Engine Optimization Company. It is the most profitable way in the long run. Yes, using Online Marketing does entail continually writing articles and submitting them to online publishers and blogs. But the outcome of concise, truthful and readable articles on a client’s Search Engine Placement, can be not only immense on the page rating, but also on the staying power of that rating.
In my experience Black Hat Search Engine Optimization Company think more about the Search Engine itself and the algorithms and rules. They put a lot of effort and time into evading them, in the belief they will gain a quick buck. I tend to think that White Hat companies think about people ie the consumers, searchers and just ordinary Joe Public. If you think this way, then you really don’t need to worry too much about rules and ethics. Online Marketing will work for you and your clients.
Then like Carl Lewis, you won’t need to cheat either.
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