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Perhaps one of the biggest difficulties in dealing with the self-identification by SEOs as SEO is that eventually, if one is honest, there has to be the admission that's something they are doing is against Google's terms of service.
The very use of the term "Terms of Service", is a sleight of hand by Google. A TOS is a device used in governing or stipulating behaviors of both sides bound by a legal contract.
For the overwhelming majority of webmasters and SEOs, there is no contract whatsoever. Google simply behaves as if there is one, using the psychological response to such language in its favor. It's a bit like manipulating the "ranking" of response choices in the minds of the hearers of quasi-legal authority. If you want a better understanding of the limits of Google's TOS, have a look at the lawsuits around the world against Google because of its own practices.
I'm not one to center arguments about business on what's "fair." In business there is always some unfair element where someone loses and someone wins. That is called competition and that's indeed what we're all engaged in whether it's SEO, content marketing, direct mail or social media and even, for that matter, the spammers too.
Google has conducted a long standing campaign to psychologically criminalize SEO. There's stance on the matter is very clear by time you read their material and watch Matt Cutts' videos. If you do anything, absolutely anything, how to influence search results other than the creation and social promotion of "awesome content", you are violating Google TOS.
On the other hand, if you're willing to pay enough money, you can rank "number one" for almost anything via pay per click.
We as SEOs and website owners must recognize that we are not in a contract with Google. People are free to do what they choose with their own websites. Google may do what it chooses. The SEO professional leverages known factors of search engine placement as much as possible to influence the outcome of search results while minimizing risk to that visibility by avoiding known penalty prone practices.
Once the SEO professional is able to move comfortably into a different relationship with search engines, the entire paradigm is reframed. We are serving the clients who need visibility where people are looking. We respect Google for what it is but we are not its servants as it would have us to be. Google serves its business interests as it sees fit and we do the same, as do our clients.
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