In other words, are businesses that hire "blackhat" search-engine manipulators more likely to engage in outright criminal activity than those who play the traffic-generation game by Google's rules?
That's the suggestion being made by Google Web-spam enforcer/blogger Matt Cutts in a provocative post that's unlikely to win him friends among SEO types, many of whom already consider Cutts the enemy.
The assertion by Cutts was prompted by news of the arrest of Matt Marlon, who was CEO of Traffic Power, a blackhat SEO operator that Google banned in 2006 and Cutts held up as an example of manipulation the search giant won't tolerate. Marlon is accused of running a mortgage scam in Nevada.
So is mere hiring of such characters a gateway to corporate crime?
For a while now, I've had a slight hunch that clients that embrace blackhat SEO on their site are willing to cut corners in other areas of business as well. Earlier today I was reviewing an email from 2001 (!) where Google removed a very large company's website from our index for hidden GIF links, machine-generated doorway pages, and cloaking. It's interesting to look back with the benefit of hindsight now. Later on, the company:
- had 10+ employees convicted for inflating revenue
- the CEO was sentenced to 10+ years in jail
- another executive was sentenced to 2+ years in jail
Can I definitively claim that there's a connection between a willingness to embrace blackhat SEO and a willingness to cut corners in other areas of business? No, of course not. But I have seen several examples like the one I mention above. That's why I'm glad that as more site owners learn about SEO, the long-term odds of blatant SEO scams going undetected go down.
Cutts doesn't name names, so it's difficult to confirm the accuracy of his account of the criminal accounting, but there's no reason to doubt that such situations have occurred. And, as generalizations go, I'm personally willing to buy the argument that search engine cheaters are more likely to cook the books than are those who consider terms of use sacred.
But it's still quite a leap.
After all, incurring the wrath of Google may result in a euphemistic fate worse than death - banishment from search rankings - but it's not going to land you in the slammer.
At least not until Google completes its quest for world domination.
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Matt Cutts Is Not My Enemy
I have enemies – he is not one of them. My original post, which was intended to be half humorous and half serious was just that.
Matt Cutts doesn't like link buying or anything like it, which automatically puts him at odds with the SEO community as a whole. But enemy, I think not. He's actually extremely helpful to the SEO community and a super nice person.
Thanks for the clarification
Matt Cutts agrees, too. For those wondering what this discussion is about, I had linked to Henshaw's post as an example of Cutts cultivating "enemies" among some SEO types. That link has been removed.
Thanks Paul
Thanks! As always, I enjoy reading your articles. Best to you.
Google competitors
I wonder how much clout folks like Cutt at Google are going to have with a new set of competitors cropping up to change the playing field. Examples like Wikia Search (Maybe. We'll see. Give them a chance, okay?), notions of a Semantic web, or my personal favorite, the stupidfilter project.
But if Google loses some of their dominating status, who's going to do the monitoring?
Google competitors
I wonder how much clout folks like Cutt at Google are going to have with a new set of competitors cropping up to change the playing field. Examples like Wikia Search (Maybe. We'll see. Give them a chance, okay?), notions of a Semantic web, or my personal favorite, the stupidfilter project.
But if Google loses some of their dominating status, who's going to do the monitoring?
Extremely Bad Logic
Wonder how many VIPs or Engineers at Google have ever been arrested???
Or will be in the future???
An arrest does not mean guilt
Ugh!
He was arrested for defrauding the customers by not warning them of the risks! Not for blackhat!
Seriously? Are you going to mislead your readers this much?
Editorial bias, just bad coverage, or amazing insight?
I don't know which is worse, Matt Cutts suggesting aggressive SEO leads to felonious behavior, or this reporter's framing of the issue using Matt Cutt's comments.
So many other factors are more likely to encourage a statistical correlation between aggressive SEO practice and fraud. The fast money to be made, relatively anonymous nature of some web publishing, fast rate of change within the industry, potential to rapidly scale up successful efforts, lack of established law/governance, cross-border operations, etc. With Google moving so much of the web's traffic, of course Google's involved.
But the same could be said of fast cars... how many convicted felons started down their path to ruin by driving fast or perhaps simply red cars?
This is silly, really.
Hardly Silly
The comments are hardly silly. People who lie about one thing will _probably_ lie about other things more so than people who don't lie in front of you. Just like folks who talk to you behind other people's backs. What do you think they say about you when you're not there?
Stock in people is exactly like stock in a company. Yes, past behavior is no indication of future behavior, but it's the best indication we have (unless you believe the pronouncements from CEOs that cheating is a thing of the past are any more valid than New Year's resolutions. You bet, I am going to eat better, exercise more, and quit wasting time responding to blogs on the web ;-)
black hat
the only way to do SEO is within the rules... otherwise it's unethical.. and therefore black hat.. i agree with him..