Ethical marketing is my core driving force. As an ethical freelance SEO specialist and marketing consultant, I often get asked what I mean by ethical. For me, ethical marketing is about understanding and sticking to my principles. But, what does that mean in practice? In this article, I’ll explain how I bring my ethical principles into my SEO implementations. I believe this approach is ultimately better for search engines, customers and businesses as a whole.

Being an Ethical Freelance SEO Specialist in Practice

Ethics are moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity. Defining one’s ethics is quite a broad matter and I could have many detailed conversations about it. My general outlook is that everyone on the planet, from humans to animals, ecosystems and society, should be looked after to make life better for all. In the realm of marketing that means two things:

Not promoting products, services or companies that harm others or engaging in unethical marketing practices.
Creating campaigns and work that is truthful, well-researched, inclusive and provides genuine solutions for users, not just search engines.

While the first of these statements is subjective in who I would work with, the aim of ethical marketing should be undertaken by all. I am a member of The Ethical Move, an organisation that promotes ethical marketing. The second of the statements is the more practical side. Below are the technicals I employ that make me an ethical freelance SEO specialist.

Content Writing

Content marketing and copywriting are some of my core services, but how do I apply ethics to my writing? It’s all about the truth. Product and service marketing can be difficult to trust when we’ve seen many examples of false advertising. The Victorian period was particularly rife with false claims and dangerous products like arsenic in soaps and lotions. Sadly it is no different today with many examples of greenwashing, woke washing and outright lies from even the biggest brands.

Accurate & Factual

To combat this distrust, I approach my content writing academically. I studied History at University and this is one of the main skills I learned. My work is well-researched and utilises information from trusted sources that I cross-reference. This ensures that anything I write is accurate and truthful to the best of my knowledge. Even in simple lifestyle blogs, I still use this level of detail to make sure I am representing my clients in the best light and that their customers are given correct information.

Accessible

Another aspect of ethical content writing is providing writing that is inclusive for all. While the target audience is important, it can include people that a client may not have thought of initially. I, therefore, try to write in an inclusive manner that reflects the diversity of our audiences and does not harm the reader. It’s not a set it and forget it skill, and I am endeavouring to continue to improve my writing in this aspect.

Creating content in the above ways improves audience reach and builds trust in your brand.

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Not just for search engines

Even as an ethical freelance SEO specialist, I’m not naive to the fact that my work is reliant on search engines. It’s in the title: search engine optimisation. But that doesn’t mean we must be bound by the whims of the search engines. I have always said, “What’s good for end users is good for Google.” So, while I ensure that a site is optimised for Google and other search engines, my content focus is always on real-life people.

Whether it’s on-page web copy, blogs or articles, I write my content for humans first. It’s not just about getting up the rankings, it’s about providing text that can inform, entertain or inspire. Articles can cover a wide variety of topics that can help your audience in many ways. Some of these include;

How-to guides and tutorials
Deep dives into products and services
Reviews and promotions
Interesting news, history or essay pieces

Not all of these are about self-promotion, they are about engaging your audience with content they actually find interesting. When you do this, you build your brands trust and provide value to your audience, whether they are customers or not.

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Quality backlinking

SEO does extend off your website as well. When creating off-page content, whether that’s guest blogging or directory listings, I ensure that the companies I select are quality and not unethical in themselves. If you have links on other sites, you want to ensure that they provide a good impression of your business as well as your own website does. A quality backlink has three core ideals; relevancy, trustworthiness and authority. I always ensure that the websites I work with have all three for my clients. With this set of rules, I know that my clients will not be penalised by search engines. Plus, any user who does find a client’s website through another site will have more confidence in them from the beginning.

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Transparency over technical SEO

Another key practice that I believe makes me an ethical freelance SEO specialist, is that I am transparent about what I do. Technical SEO on a website can be, well, technical. It’s not always easy to explain or understand, especially if you do not code or are not familiar with SEO. So, I do my best to explain to my clients exactly what I am doing, why I am doing it and how it will affect their site.

Technical SEO primarily focuses on the behind the scenes work. Some of which is visible to end-users and some of which is only for the benefit of search engines. There has been a lot of shady work done since the concept of SEO was created. Black Hat SEO, as it is often referred to, attempts to manipulate search engines rather than provide valuable SEO work. I will never use Black Hat techniques, and I don’t believe that SEO is a magically dark art. I want to ensure my customers know what they are paying for and why I choose to do the actions I do on their site. Ethical SEO is about truth, transparency and making a website work for its owners.