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You obviously did not bother to follow the link Greg gave and read the statement – they deny having Porshe.dk as a client too.

I think you should be more carefull in your SEO witch-hunt and what you claim about other companies in public. Making such false statement is not only MUCH more unethical than any (so-called) search engine spam will ever be, in my book, it is also illegal.

I have worked with a great deal of very large brands too and I have to agree with Greg that the request to move to more agressive SEO has always come from inside the companies – AND, it is indeed more comon than you think. The engines and the press usually only find the most blatant (and simple) spam – NOT the more advanced and more “well secured” stuff.

The footprints I was referring to was on Porsche, and they’re obviously not denying that…

Sorry. My bad.

Sverre

http://www.netpointers-technologies.com/com/com/cases/case_studies__1/case_wonderful_copenhagen

Then do a np_dk site:visitcopenhagen.dk

Sverre

I spend much time investigating and sending seize and desist to blogs, sites and whatnot that are actively leaching off our brand. It is not a good thing cause it’s dilluting our SERPS.

However, if a large company are allowed to employ black hat techniques on their brand and get away with it, what’s stopping them from employing similar tactics on off brand products? That’s what I have a problem with.

Radisson SAS got banned for over 2 months in 2004 for redirects and doorway pages with duplicate content(incidentally SEOed by Netpointers, the same company behind BWM and Porsche).

One year after, I did a quick check, and the banning certainly didn’t stop them from further expanding this strategy. And they are not primarily targeting their brand.

As an example, they have over 40 pages with identical content targeted over 40 different phrases on two hotels in my home town in Norway: http://www.seobomb.com/radisson-sas-busted-for-black-hat-seo-again/

This can hardly be called protecting your brand – this is just pure SE spam.

Sverre

Getting them to do simple things like internal text linking can take months for approval, and several more to move into production.

Which is why I retired from the corporate SEO game. But that’s a whole other story.

I have worked with about 15 big brands (I believe 5 are F1000) and I can tell you that absolutely none of them would approve of an SEO technique that could get them removed.

I’ve certainly worked with some big brands who match that description. But for everyone who took that position there were one or two that were fine with the BMW approach. Agressive corporate SEO is more common than you might think.

To go down that road without getting their approval is a dishonest business practice, whether you think it right or not. I think you’d agree with me on that (or at least I hope you would!).

On this point, we completely agree. Any SEO who adopts a “Plan B” strategy without full disclosure to the client should be strung up and shot. But that isn’t what happened in this case. BMW was clearly aware of the strategy. And I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of other brands who got caught were also completely aware of the SEO tactics being used.

I’ve done a ton of that kind of work in the past (although none of my clients ever got caught) and I can tell you that the pressure to go down that road always came from within. The common attitude was that if they got the boot, they’d just make a phone call and say they were sorry.

You are limiting your point about brand perception to the external.

The large brands I have worked with are neurotic about perception, to the point where, as I heard an SEM firm state at SES last summer, “95% of the SEO project with a F1000 is change management”.

They have rigid policies in place to maintain their brand. I had to read a 35 page manual that outlined color palettes, writing styles (with many samples), criteria for image selection, and much, much more. Getting them to do simple things like internal text linking can take months for approval, and several more to move into production.

I have worked with about 15 big brands (I believe 5 are F1000) and I can tell you that absolutely none of them would approve of an SEO technique that could get them removed. To go down that road without getting their approval is a dishonest business practice, whether you think it right or not. I think you’d agree with me on that (or at least I hope you would!).