SEO Ethics

You can't trust anyone

[rintrah]

The company I'm currently working with recently severed relations with a small SEO firm (on good terms).

As Webmaster, I finally got around to examining what this SEO "professional" had been working on, and discovered that he had placed hidden image links to his own company web site on our homepage.

Isn't this a no-no? What are the legalities of this in terms of intellectual property?

[trillianjedi]

If the company you're working for owns the website - just remove them.

In general, anything on a website that is not of use to users is redundant, irrespective of how it may affect you with the search engines.

TJ

[paladin]

Like trillianjedi said, you (or the company) should be able to remove the images/links.

On the ethical side, it sounds like the original SEO company belongs to the dark side. On most of the sites that I work on, there is a link to my site, but the owners always know about it, and it is in plain visible text.

[rintrah]

No worries about removing them - I already did - but I was definately shocked by the lack of professionalism.

[ncsuk]

Dare we ask who this company was...!

*Dont answer that.

[rintrah]

Um, I think I'll keep the company name quiet - or else this thread will erupt into chaos.

[JasonHamilton]

Yes, I can hear the rioters already :)