This document provides guidelines for SEO activities to prevent blackhat techniques. It outlines 5-6 rules that SEO professionals should follow, including sources to reference and definitions of penalization and responsibilities. The guidelines differentiate between basic setup, strategy, communication, control, and penalization. The overall aim is to define an ethical SEO strategy and hold SEO teams accountable for any penalties from search engines.

1. Take Away Guide for SEO Activities
Rules, Sources & Penalization
This document aims to be a guideline for any SEO activity in order to prevent blackhat tech‐
niques. It includes 5‐6 rules that a SEO agency/ freelancer/ employee should follow, several
sources to be updated and a light definition for penalization and responsibility definition.
We differentiate between the following parameters in order to have a better overview. This list
makes no claim to be in correct order nor to be complete. It is simply written to help to define the
best SEO strategy in practice.
Basic Set­up: Prevention is better than cure!
 Come to a basic agreement that blackhat
techniques are not allowed and any SEO strat‐
egy has to be carried out in the most effective
and ethical manner!
 Make a contract!
 Comply with general company policy!
 SEO work cannot be shared with competitors!
 Don’t open the page‐code to the SEO
consultant!
 Be the sole manager for decision‐making and
the analytic tools!
 Company not liable for any illegal acts such as
blackhat techniques!
Strategy: Turn the future into the cause of the present!
 Everything does need an initial analysis!
 Design a strategy, define KPI, objectives and stages of the projects: A good road map is ba‐
sic! Set it out in writing!
 Identify the right agency/ freelancer (outsourcing) or competent employee/ department
(in‐house) for your strategy/ company; make a contract
 Be aware of any strategy of any changes to the strategy or game plan immediately and ap‐
prove them, before they take place!
Communication: Don’t talk about something, talk to somebody!
 Make the entire team understand, what your agreement is about!
 Meet on a regular basis with all the people involve of the project and discuss the progress,
talk about problems or make decisions, if necessary!
 Do talk about your Project Status Report: KPI, dates, deliverables!
 Coaching and training are part of the strategy!
Control: Trust is good, control is better!
 Control your analytics tool! Track the main data and be sure that the outsourced party is
not doing any illegal act such as black SEO, farms links and purchasing links!
 Proof the outcome and define strategies how to continue!
 Constantly improve: SEO never stops!
Penalization: You got, what you deserved!
 Make the responsible SEO team accountable for any losses the company incurs from sanc‐
tions brought upon the company by search engines resulting from the use of blackhat
practices!
 Violation of any of the rules will be subject to termination and dismissal!
 Reduce payments, if necessary!
 Sconce the responsible SEO team, if necessary!