Well known tech publishers O’Reilly have been accused of committing heinous acts of search engine spamming by Phil Ringnalda.
The only problem is that the accusation is incorrect, and O’Reilly has done no such thing.
Search engine spamming is about manipulating search engine results through illegitimate means, where as what we’ve got here is a case of sites buying advertising with the link based on the keyword/ topic which most people would consider a fair or “white hat” SEO tactic. The sites featured in the advertising have no discernable record of dodgy tactics and are actually relevant to the keyword’s used in the ads. Just because they are flogging mortgages and similar doesn’t make them the bad guys, because at the end of the day they are entitled to flog their products as much as the next person, as long as they don’t use dodgy tactics such as comment spam and spam blogs.
So please, if you’re reading Ringnalda’s post, and there seems to be a fair bit of traffic visiting there, don’t get caught up in the witch hunt.
“‘I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem – vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!
Arthur Miller: The Crucible Act 2, Scene 4
(thanks to Patrick Groate for the tip)
