Last Update: Tuesday, January 18, 2005.
In this article I discuss seven illegal, or almost
illegal, search engine optimization and related techniques.
1. Trademarked Keywords In Domain Names
If you're thinking of registering a domain name
that includes a trademarked keyword, think again.
Using someone else's trademark to attract
customers is illegal. It violates federal trademark law, which prohibits the
use of someone else's trademark, if it causes a "likelihood of
confusion" among consumers.
Take Yahoo for example. They objected to 37
registered domains, including AtlantaYahoo.com, DCYahoo.com, Jahu.com and
Yhu.com. Read the full
story.
2. Trademarked Keywords In
It's not necessarily illegal to use trademarked
keywords in your
It all depends on why and how you are using the
trademarked keywords. If you used the keywords in what is deemed a deceptive
manner, then you're likely to lose your case.
However, there has been one instance of a
defendant who proved to the judge that she had a legitimate reason to use the
trademarked keyword. Read the full story.
Here's a short story to illustrate the seriousness
of using trademarked keywords in
I had a client who included the trademarked brand
name of a competing product in one of his web pages.
One day, he received a letter from the lawyer
acting on behalf of the trademark owner in question.
The letter stated:
"Use of [trademarked term] constitutes federal false
advertising, trademark infringements, state unfair competition and is
deliberately designed to trade on [trademarked term] reputation and goodwill.
Placing the term, [trademarked term], in the keywords and
They threatened to sue, unless my client removed
the trademarked terms from the
What was surprising was that we could use the
trademarked terms in the visible page body. So we kept the trademarked keywords
in the page body.
3. Pagejacking
Pagejacking is copying someone else's web page and submitting it to
the search engines as your own, in hopes of getting high rankings. Quite often pagejacking also involves page
cloaking.
Pagejacking is no more than stealing copyrighted content. It beats me
why people would be so dumb as to try this technique. Don't try it. You will be
caught sooner or later.
4. Deep Linking
Deep linking is the practice of providing a link
directly to specific content on a web site's sub-page, instead of linking to
its home page.
On July 5, 2002, the Bailiff's Court of Copenhagen
ruled in favor of the Danish Newspaper Publishers Association, which claimed
that Danish company Newsbooster violated copyright
laws by "deep linking" to newspaper articles on some Danish
newspapers' web sites.
The argument is that in bypassing the newspapers'
home pages, Newsbooster links deprive them of
advertising revenue. Further, they asserted that Newsbooster
is in direct competition with newspapers. Read the full story.
7. Deep Linking Without
Permission
If a site you are linking to has
stated that linking is prohibited, or requires permission first, then don't
link to them. If you do, you're asking for trouble.
6. Trademarked Keyword
Advertising
Thinking of bidding for competing trademarked
keywords in search engines? Think again!
In January 1999, Estee
Lauder sued iBeauty and Excite@Home,
saying its trademarks were violated when iBeauty's
ads were presented during searches for Estee Lauder
trademarked keywords.
When a person searched Excite@Home's
search engine for "Clinique," they were
presented with a banner ad for iBeauty. In addition,
the search returned a list of related web sites, including iBeauty.com.
In August, 2000, iBeauty
decided to voluntarily remove the trademarked keywords from its list. Read the full story.
7. Deep Linking Within A Frame
If you link to another site's content by
displaying it within a FRAME on your site, and your ad in another FRAME, you're
walking on thin ice.
What you're basically doing is
"stealing" other people's content to generate advertising revenue. I
would recommend staying clear of this practice.
Conclusion
Take care with the marketing techniques you use.
If you think a technique can be construed as illegal, search the internet for
possible legal cases on the technique. If you can't find any, then it's a good
chance that the technique in question is worth pursuing.
You may also like to read my article, "Ten
Controversial Search Engine Optimization Techniques." In this article
I discuss ten controversial search engine optimization techniques that should
be used with caution, or even avoided altogether.
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About The Author: Michael Wong is a respected