Categories: Articles

The Ugly Side Of Search

I was recently having breakfast with a well-respected expert in e-commerce. We got on the topic of search engine marketing and search engine optimization and he started telling me about companies that are paying search engine optimization people not to increase their position, but simply to damage and hurt the rankings of their competitors.
Wow. That’s harsh. You’re paying someone not to improve your situation but to lower your competitors. I’d file that one under the lazy, angry and nasty categories. I’m not even sure Sun Tzu would have the stones to write a chapter in The Art Of War on these types of creatures.
I’m curious to know if you’ve heard of companies who will de-optimize someone’s competition and how they do it (don’t worry, I won’t call you out. I’m just curious to see how these slugs market themselves).
There is always an ugly side to marketing. There will always be people who will use their power and knowledge to do more harm than good. I guess I’m just hoping that these people are few and far between.
I know, I’m naive.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.