World Association of Internet Marketing (WAIM) Code of Ethics
STATEMENT OF THE SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING STANDARDS COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD ASSOCIATIONS OF INTERNET MARKETING ON COMMON PRACTICES, APRIL 3, 2002.
The Search Engine Marketing Standards Committee goal is to provide Search Providers and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) companies with a forum that offers opportunities for discussion about investigating, developing and adopting a set of standards and common practices for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) programs.
We believe that the process of rationalization and defining best practices will address some of the important barriers and hurdles to our growing profession’s acceptance.
There is much confusion about and mistrust of SEO companies and tactics. Search Providers do not trust our profession as a whole because of ‘black magic’ tricks implemented to fool the search users for the purpose of generating traffic to an online business.
Traditional marketing departments do not understand or budget for search engine optimization despite the demonstrable value. The search engine industry is new and chaotic, and technical, making it hard to win time and money in budgets and with people that are stretched to the limit. Internet marketing is not yet a tool in the kits of mainstream marketing and communication plans.
This evolving set of ‘common or best practices’ will be developed with the end user’s experience in mind. Users demand relevant results and Search Engine Marketing companies and organizations should do their utmost to provide the user with the highest relevancy possible and thus a ‘good experience’.
To be more specific – when a user performs a search, receives a range of results, clicks on a result and is delivered to a page that reflects the content of the result, then they can be said to have had a good experience. No surprises. No disappointments. Nothing misleading. Following this directive will make it easier to present the case for search engine optimization within an organization, and to continue to build trust with the search providers.
There are challenges to building that trust and getting the marketing communication managers to recognize our industry. This young industry needs to grow and such troubles spots are part of the growth.
We need to recognize that not all search engines use the same algorithms for determining the relevance, and thus the ranking, of a specific URL. These algorithms are part of the Intellectual Property of the search provider and therefore theirs to disclose or not to disclose to the public.
It is also necessary to recognize that not all web site designs and complex and emerging technologies are going to ‘fit’ the optimal form that leads to high and/or relevant rankings.
In summary, beginning this dialog will further WAIM’s goal of fostering a trusting environment for providers of search results and companies that are contracted to increase web site traffic for clients through search results. An environment to discuss common ground and controversial items with respect to Search Engine Optimization and the larger picture of Search Engine Marketing.