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Comment by elorant | Hacker News Reader

So if I have a content site and some SEO company offers me money to publish an article am I supposed to refuse for the well being of Google’s SERP?

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No, you refuse because affiliating with spammers is a bad thing to do.

Who said they're spammers?

You did. In your above post.

A SEO company represents a plastic surgeon. They offer money to a news site to publish an advertorial. How's that spam? And that article about how to properly wash your clothes that suggests a few washing machines is also paid. That's how news media works for ages. So by your definition all these legitimate companies are spammers? Would you care to inform me how should PR be performed then?

Correct.

If you're offering me money to link you, then presumably you believe your content is not of high enough quality for me to link you otherwise.

It's not even hypothetical. I've seen these offers. Every single article is hot garbage.

What do you mean, "legitimate companies"?

You seem to have misunderstood the difference between an advertising agency and a SEO company. What you're describing is what advertising agencies do, SEO companies are spammers that sell access to their spamming tools. It's similar to the difference between an agency practicing law and having them send a cease-and-desist, and buying a DDoS.

Not that I'm particularly fond of any of that, though I have lawyers practicing in another area as customers.

A plastic surgeon is a legitimate business. How on earth would a business like that promote its site and gain visitors? By paying exuberant fees on keyword auctions on AdWords? It's way more affordable to just pay a PR firm, or a SEO company to publish an advertorial on a news site. And no, not all companies that sell SEO are spammers. Grow up, please.

Some of you guys need to get your heads out of your butts and realize how the real world works. It's not just black and white all the time.

Personally I don't think for-profit surgery, or for-profit medicine generally, is a legitimate business. It might open up as a possibility when every person has access to the medical care they need, but that seems far off.

Email spam is cheaper than news paper adverts, does that make it "legitimate"? Because that seems to be your argument here.

Personally I don't think for-profit surgery, or for-profit medicine generally, is a legitimate business.

Sorry, but I'm not willing to have this discussion. As I said, you'd better grow up and face the realities of the world you live in.

Why did you start it then? A lack of self control?

>A plastic surgeon is a legitimate business.

At this point, the argument has lost good faith.

ADDENDUM: for comprehension, not plastic surgeons.

Never thought I'd see a pro-advertising industry "hacker" on this site.

I'm not affiliated with SEO in an way. I just understand how things work. Advertorial articles existed decades before the emergence of the web.

You refuse because visibility of an article shouldn’t be based on who can pay the most money to push its visibility.

I suggest you read the following. Because it's pretty obvious that a lot of you guys live in some parallel universe where things are just black and white.

https://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

I disagree about having PR other than on the entity’s own website, newsletters and such. There is nothing parallel-universe about that.

You should refuse for the simple fact that this company is unlikely to be only contacting you. They will have a large footprint that you don't want to be part of.

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