Sempo wants only whitehat SEO

October 9th, 2007

I was reading Ian McNerins blog with interest this morning and in particular his post on a ‘new’ line in the SEMPO signup process namely

“Business Conduct. In addition, the applicant agrees to engage
in Search Marketing practices which are not in direction violation of published guidelines from Google, Yahoo!, and other search engine providers.”

My main issue with signing up to bodies such as SEMPO and to a certain extent the IAB has been the fact that I have to pay for the priviledge, and priviledge that neither gives me an advantage nor differs me from any of my unethical SEO friends down the road, nor differs me from a web development only agency ‘that does SEO’.

Whilst in principle I think I am 100% behind an individual body, such a body has to represent the industry as a whole, not just the select few who want to pay the money, particularly if no criteria is associated with membership. Therefore imcorporating such measures into SEMPO membership is a major step in the right direction.

I think Ian says it best - “Heh - maybe I *can* work with these guys. It’s certainly a step in the right direction. There is no indication of any kind of enforcement, so it’s not perfect, but a couple of years ago you would not have seen this, and it would have created a huge controversy if you had. Maybe our little industry really is starting to grow up.”

Entry Filed under: SEO Industry