Fact is, There are a lot of bad people in every industry. SEO is still a very young industry and needs to grow and establish itself through positive people. Eventually the evildoers will be weeded out (hopefully).

I myself am a knowledgeable programmer and I run an SEO/internet marketing company. I must say that a lot of my job involves re-coding bad code.

I would never use my talents to create such things as bot nets or spam programs. Instead I just recently started a free SEO tutorial site which helps people with minimal or no money do SEO work for themselves.

I wish I could do more for the web and when I have time I try to do as much as possible. Unfortunately there are not enough hours in the day for me anymore :)

Anyway Thank you for the clarification, I would leave a link to my free tutorial site in the sig so that you can see it, but I am in fear that all I have just written will be deleted. But if you would like to check it out you can take the URL out of my submitted email address and past it into your browser.

You’ve won me over, I’m a fan. Looking forward to your future posts. I think the “pain” of the anti-seo post was well worth it.

You took an unpopular position, and stood by it, and made very valid points throughout. I applaud you.

After I left I heard all the company websites got banned from google, took them days to clear up all the evil “seo” they had done. Which turned out where things I wasn’t even aware of.

So kudos to speak up on this issue.

Businesses would still think they needed SEO and would go to the scammers and opportunists.

Suggesting we change the name of what we do is like suggesting web designers change their job titles as there are shit Flash developers out there making rubbish sites and charging clients through the nose for them.

As I’ve said on another post, what we do is best practice web development, content strategy and design – and we get called in when a company thinks “we need SEO”. They don’t think “we need better developers” or “we need education on how to build a website”.

I’m glad Derek has written these posts as it’s bringing into the open how many good SEOs are out there. We know our industry is full of scammers, and we know the majority of web folk hate us, but we’re trying to fix the industry as we believe in what we do. I think the majority of SEOs are trying to make the web a better place, just as developers, designers and content writers are.

Derek I’m sure you don’t want a list of what every white hat does, but we are trying to fix the perception of our industry. Most of my SEO talks at conferences are about how SEO should be done in-house by your own developers and content writers. My clients know that my goal is to make myself redundant in their business – to pass on my SEO skills so they can do it themselves as part of the web development process.

Great post Derek!
- Ed Cehi

For what it’s worth Derek, you’re listed second in Google after Wikipedia. That’s using my gaming account (the one which I use to play EVE Online, which is the one that keeps getting banner ads for EVE Online on every single website I browse).

I still think the “white hat SEO” folks need a new name for their business, they’re not gaming search engines, they’re improving the accessibility of content on their customers’ web sites.

Thankyou for your insigful blog, it’s a great read!

You say above “I ask the good SEOs: What are you doing to clean up your industry? Perhaps if you did more, you wouldn’t have to endure the regular bleats of frustration from people like me.”

As Shari and Jill said, we write articles. We speak at conferences. We publish blogs and newsletters that educate webmasters about *good* SEO. I run an (unpaid) agony aunt column answering newbie questions about anything search engine related. My latest post even warns a reader against taking up the services of a scammer (calling himself an SEO) claiming to be able to put a site onto the first page of Google within 24 hours.

I tutor students in 44 countries in SEO via an online educational institution that I founded specifically to educate confused webmasters. And yes, web design, usability and copywriting are featured as key components.

You say “the only reason to get defensive is if it’s true.”

Another reason to come to the defense of our industry is when it is wrongly labelled. If we didn’t care about our industry’s reputation we wouldn’t bother to try and correct assumptions and stop the spread of misinformation.

As John stated above, we felt we needed to clean up YOUR view of the SEO practitioners out there so it didn’t propagate the myth that SEO is evil. It’s just another way we’re trying to clean up our industry as a whole, as you are suggesting.

What more would you have us do?

Easier said then done. Shaming the baddies is unproductive and in some countries where libel laws are a bit stricter, like Australia, it could land you in hot water. As a business owner the last thing I need is the distraction and costs of a defamation case.

Also, in my experience the ones who “employ botnets, third-world labor, and zombie computers to blanket the web with link spam” are often operating out of other countries and do a fairly good job of covering their tracks. You could spend all day just tracking them down.

I do believe though we have a role through education, transparency, training and doing great SEO work. Unfortunately, though it’s a tough slog and won’t chase out the evildoers overnight. SEO is hot so the spammers and opportunists will continue to apply their trade until they discover the next big thing and move on. Could it be social media?. :)