Ethics and Professional Intimacy Within the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Industry
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing a digital profile’s visibility within a search engine for relevant search engine results pages. SEO is playing a critical role within the digital marketing and communication strategies of many
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Salford Business School, Salford, Greater Manchester, UK [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing a digital profile’s visibility within a search engine for relevant search engine results pages. SEO is playing a critical role within the digital marketing and communi‐ cation strategies of many organizations globally. Particularly in the UK, digital marketing budgets have continued to rise in the last decade, despite the economic uncertainties. With the increase of spending in SEO related activities, a number of busi‐ nesses focusing on SEO services have emerged, offering SEO services with unfounded promises. The SEO services are not regulated and do not have recog‐ nized ethical standards. Key influences such as a lack of professional intimacy and the velocity of market change are considered, as well as the possibility that the SEO community is becoming divided in its own understanding of what it fundamentally is. Dilution of industry specialism, through a continual attempt at self-preservation and canni‐ balization of other methods of online communication, is leaving not only SEO practitioners vulnerable, but also the very clients and consumers they are hired to serve. This raises a clear ethical issue that requires further exploration. Keywords: Search Engine Optimization · SEO · Ethics · Professional intimacy
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Introduction
This paper identifies a need for ethics and professional intimacy within the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry. To date, Marketing, Business and IT research publications have covered a wide range of material on practical guidance for the SEO practitioner, however, detailed discussion into the significance of ethical SEO conduct is yet to be explored. This paper aims to determine if there is a need for transformation of the SEO industries current practice and processes in order to safeguard the future of the industry and defend its reputation. This is a position paper underpinned with accounts from scholarly literature as well as practitioner opinions from industry related blogs and reports. It will commence with an analysis of the current condition of the SEO industry and its stance on ethical SEO. The paper will finish with a discussion of ethics and professional intimacy in the SEO industry, as well as justification for further relevant research into the unique area of SEO.
© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2016 Published by Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. All Rights Reserved D. Kreps et al. (Eds.): HCC12 2016, IFIP AICT 474, pp. 106–115, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-44805-3_9
Ethics and Professional Intimacy Within the SEO Industry
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The State of Digital
Consumer behavior has changed considerably over the last decade with the evolution of multi-device and multi-channel buying patterns and behaviors, forever influencing how organizations communicate with their consumers [25]. This has placed pressure on the organization to become multidisciplinary wi
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