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An Ethical Debate On Which We Can All (Maybe) Agree: The Average Webmaster And Dodgy SEO
SEM News Source: http://www.seomoz.org
Published: Oct 02, 2008 - 08:43 pm
Story Found By: ciaran 1689 Days ago
Category: SEM
Jane follows up Danny’s post about his conversation with a truthfully challenged (if you see what I mean) search marketer. She mentions the ’e’ word. Twenty quid to the first person to mention Lyndon-gate in the comments.

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 Comments12 Comments  

Comments

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from g1smd 1689 Days ago #
Votes: -2

If you’re going to mention Lyndon in this context...  then I think there is but one simple question to answer.<div></div><div></div><div>If the website owner had asked Lyndon, in advance, "is there a risk in this?", what would he have said in reply?</div><div><div></div></div>

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from ciaran 1689 Days ago #
Votes: 2

I mentioned Lyndon as a joke. Obviously wasn’t that funny...

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from g1smd 1689 Days ago #
Votes: 0

I was being rhetorical too.  Ah well, I’ll retire to bed for the rest of the day...

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from Jill 1689 Days ago #
Votes: 3

The whole paid links / nofollow thing is bad and wrong because nobody should NEED to read Google’s webmaster guidelines in order to have a website and be successful with it.End of story, imo.

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from Halfdeck 1689 Days ago #
Votes: 3

"End of story, imo."<div></div><div></div><div>Not end of story.</div><div></div><div></div><div>You can have a website and completely ignore Google guidelines as long as you understand you may not get traffic from Google. If Google was Mohican Sun or Atlantic City is it wrong for Google to set ground house rules or do I get to walk in and say its wrong for Google to take my money when my cards add up to 23?</div><div></div><div></div><div>You think Google is the only website with rules? http://www.link-o-rama.com/greenguy/therules.htm</div><div></div><div></div><div>What happens if an adult webmaster submits a free site with a girl going from nude to fully clothed? You don’t get listed. You don’t get traffic. Why? Bookmarkers don’t like pics out of order (imagine that).</div><div></div><div></div><div>People insist on a one-way street relationship with Google. I give Google nothing and Google gives me tons of $$$. So its wrong for Google to expect me to meet it halfway? I don’t think so.</div><div></div><div></div><div>Sure, I shouldn’t have to use nofollow. Google *should* be able to figure stuff out on its own. Should some of Google’s house rules be changed? Absolutely. But its not wrong for Google to set house rules. Every website does.</div>

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from janecopland 1689 Days ago #
Votes: 2

If *I* mention Lyndongate in the comments, will you give me £20?

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from Feydakin 1689 Days ago #
Votes: 0

@halfdeck, you give Google free access to copy and cache all your work which they use to make millions of dollars on.. Seems like you are giving them quite a bit to me.. If everyone took away their content what would Google have?? If you took Google away, what would we have?? The answers are easy, nothing and the same thing we had before Google..

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from WilliamC 1689 Days ago #
Votes: 0

Feydakin: agreed. A lot of people seem to forget that without all of our content, google dies a quick and painful death. On the flipside, if Google disapeared, life would be about the same for us, just with a different search engine. History repeats itself.

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from JMorris 1689 Days ago #
Votes: 0

I won’t repeat my 1/2 cohearant babblings from the comments, but I will say this topic is a good subject because there are far too few resources for the amateur or novice webmaster that educate about the risks involved in linking. Well, at least that aren’t burried under crap or aren’t as long as a small novel.

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from webmarketingnow 1688 Days ago #
Votes: 0

You are can have a website and completely ignore Google guidelines as long as you understand you may not get traffic from Google. If Google was Mohican Sun or Atlantic City is it wrong for Google to set ground house rules or do I get to walk in and say its wrong for Google to take my money when my cards add up to 23?I trust Google will do the right thing and put me back to where I was before all the DP mess.

Avatar Moderator
from Jill 1688 Days ago #
Votes: 1

@Halfdeck, yes it is Google’s engine and they can certainly make whatever rules they would like. I just don’t personally think it’s very smart of them to make a rule that falls outside of how someone might typically build a website if Google didn’t exist.I strongly believe that nobody should ever have to read Google’s guidelines to be able to be found by people looking for what they offer. But with this one "guideline" suddenly you have to.

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from Halfdeck 1687 Days ago #
Votes: 0

"I just don’t personally think it’s very smart of them to make a rule that falls outside of how someone might typically build a website if Google didn’t exist."I agree Jill but the fact of the matter is we do things outside the relm of "just building website" anyway with or without Google guidelines. Staying away from flash-only website, optimizing TITLE elements, etc. The only time doing things for Google becomes a problem is when that activity creates a conflict of interest (e.g. nofollowing a paid link leads to loss of monthly TLA revenue). 

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