Who’s Your SEO?

With its recent purchase of Internet ad serving developer and provider DoubleClick, Google has taken another step into the deep end of the ethics pool.

In addition to buying a company that has already been investigated for violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act, by purchasing DoubleClick, Google has also acquired Performics – the Internet marketing division of DoubleClick.

A clear conflict of interest, what Google does next with this SEO/SEM company could be vital in determining what, if any of their credibility for returning quality search results is to remain.

So, what should Google do? Should they keep Performics? Sell the company off? Integrate them into Matt Cutt’s spam patrol team?

Whatever they choose to do, Google needs to decide quickly. The longer they wait, the more conspiracy theories will continue to circulate and grow.

In the meantime, to help fuel the conspiracy theories – here are some signs that your SEO company may be owned by Google:

• The SEO’s company logo changes every holiday.
• Your SEO consultant keeps trying to “personalize” your working relationship.
• Your SEO consultant only recommends 1 word keywords and then asks, “Do you feel lucky?”
• Your SEO company has an army of lawyers on its payroll.
• A Google search for “Search Engine Optimization” returns a page that says, “Did you mean: Google”
• When you call customer support, Matt Cutts answers the phone
• Your SEO Consultant refers to paid and organic listings as “the same thing”
• You just picked up a mysterious text link from Stanford.edu.
• All of your sales start coming though Google Checkout.
• Your PR increases each time you purchase additional services.