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Ridiculous Statement of the Week: Jill Whelan on SEOs Committing Crimes Against Clients
By dave_pasternack | March 27, 2008
SearchEngineLand.com’s Jill Whelan won our “Ridiculous Statement of the Week” award when she wrote the following absurd nugget in a rambling defense of the SEM industry’s complete failure to propose and implement meaningful codes of conduct for SEOers:
“One would think the threat of jail time or a court-ordered breach of contract settlement would be deterrent enough from committing crimes against clients.”
Yes, Jill, there are laws on the books, and perhaps these laws alone might deter a few SEOers from stealing from their clients. But deterrence is based not so much on the severity of any sentence but on the certainty that one will get caught. Lots of businesses that get scammed by contractors don’t prosecute, and lots of civil lawsuits get settled quietly because nobody wants to be admit being “taken.” We as an industry need to do a lot more to bring the bad guys to heel. And standards - enforceable ones - are a good baby step toward cleaning up this industry once and for all.
Topics: Ridiculous Statement of the Week, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Shady Marketing Tactics |
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