The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has a wide remit. In March 2011 this remit further expands, with backing from Google, to look at claims and sales practises on websites. It’s already possible for the ASA to investigate PPC campaigns.
Natural search results are exempt from the expanded remit as is user generated content provided it is not then used in marketing communications. It might be tempting to consider SEO outside the ASA’s area of interest but this is not the case.
In fact, it is the presentation of the natural search results that are exempt from the Committee of Advertising Practise not the methods by which these are achieved. For example, if Google’s search snippet suggests that Widget X is for sale from your site for £9.99 but you’ve recently increased the price to £11.99 then the CAP will not consider you at fault. They accept it’s up to Google to update the search snippet.
So, when would the ASA consider investigating brands, agencies and website owners for SEO tactics? One very possible scenario for 2011 is the presence of undisclosed paid for links.
In a run through scenario of an SEO agency acquiring a link from a blogger, with the intent of pushing the SEO rankings, Malcolm Philips, Code Policy Manager at the Committee of Advertising Practise, agreed that the ASA would likely investigate such techniques.
Google requires the use of code, typically the ‘nofollow’ but alternatives such as a redirect through a robots.txt blocked script, but that’s not what the ASA and the CAP are interested in. The ASA wants to ensure that paid for links, and other promotions, are disclosed in such a way that the average consumer can see the relationship between blogger and advertiser.
It’s therefore possible for links to be safe by Google standards but still in breach of the ASA. Equally, it’s possible for links to be safe by the ASA standard but in breach of Google’s guidelines. You can imagine black hat SEO agencies are not likely to buy links from sites and ask the website owner to then publicly disclose that those links were bought.
One complaint against Google is that the search engine does not seem to take action against big brands. This is something that Google denies. In this video Matt Cutts, Google’s head of web spam, makes it clear that the spam team does take action against big brands.
It might well be argued that the ASA is more likely to be investigate big brands. It may way be a retailer risking a quick win strategy for Christmas or a travel company pushing Q1 success.
The ASA, of course, isn’t alone. Much of the CAP reflects current regulations and laws – the guidance of the Office of Fair Trading, for example, is a significant influence.
The OFT has already been engaged this year, stepping in to ensure that blog collective Handpicked Media used appropriate disclaimers on posts.
Interesting the OFT said;
... disclose, in a manner unavoidable to the average consumer, that the promotion has been paid for or otherwise remunerated.
In other words, the OFT is interested if bloggers or site owners are “remunerated” in some way. The SEO agency tactic of “paying for time” rather than the link or paying for a “banner” that just happens to come with a bunch of links might also be breaking the law.
Finally, it is easy to imagine that the number of complaints the ASA receives about undisclosed paid for reviews, links and other promotions will massively ramp up in 2011. If the ASA is seen to act and Google is seen to be slow then agencies, competitors and customers may be lining up to help report violations.
Image by gt8073a, via Flickr.
Andrew Girdwood is Media Innovations Directory at bigmouthmedia and a guest blogger for Econsultancy. He can be found on Twitter here and Google+ here.
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11:43AM on 17th December 2010
Are you f**king joking
12:04PM on 17th December 2010
Good Luck with this!!
If Google don't have the resources to police this properly then I'm not sure how some box ticking paper pushers are going to be able to do it!
12:22PM on 17th December 2010
Mmmm so will the ASA look at the gift suggestion guides in glossy supplements and into the fashion industry. And the cutsey press release about a "survay" that plugs a particular product or buisness area then?
12:32PM on 17th December 2010
Let us see wat's gonna happen in 2011
1:26PM on 17th December 2010
I'm already compiling a list of every page I find that has a link on it in order to report them all to the ASA. That should keep them busy come March. @DogFace LOL
2:13PM on 17th December 2010
The ASA is funded by advertisers. Big brands using SEO techniques are not going to fund a self regulator that bans their successful, hidden techniques. Only the OFT will step in and do that and then only if the government wants it to which may be the case. It may be that the government is serious about rebalancing the UK economy away from consumer led spending.
2:31PM on 17th December 2010
Well in that case, BigMouthMedias ars will be on the line :) Cas I heard clients paying them shit loads of money for an ethical (decent) link building activity and all they do is fuck it all up...watch out BMM.
2:56PM on 17th December 2010
Amazon's associates too? The only reason anyone signs up to Amazon as an affiliate is to be paid to promote links to Amazon. To just blog what you think you don't sign up to affiliate marketing programs.
4:09PM on 17th December 2010
Hi Andrew,
Been following this some time. Although I see where some commentators are coming from the answers do not look at the facts, It is inevitable if you try high pressure sales ononline you will get burnt. Most people are online to escape telemarketeers, barages of tv advertsing and the like. Decent relationship building in an ethical fashion cuts through that resistance like a brooad sword.
The facts are online sales are up this month, as is the hours people spend online. This issue is not going away. Someone has to police it as we want to safe online. I believe high pressure sales people will gravitate to the web in the next few years.
Dara Bell
4:32PM on 17th December 2010
What utter nonsense. Completely un-enforceable. @Ane-ne-mous - brilliant!
5:16PM on 17th December 2010
*Steps in to ROFLCOPTER* The comments on the page made the article. Merry Xmas.
7:04AM on 18th December 2010
This is a very good move to curb rotten SEO prctices and self proclaimed result oriented SEO companies or experts. Hopefully, it will guard laymen from getting double-crossed by such organizations. This will bring the real top SEO companies to lime-light. Thanks to Google for backing up this healthy initiative.
7:36AM on 18th December 2010
The blog was quite engaging. Please keep me updated in case of further developments.
12:20PM on 19th December 2010
Totally unenforceable I completely agree. Some companies are going to lose out to heavy handedness from ASA though. They will be able to destroy some firms. Good idea to bombard them with all the stupid stuff you see. Be good to see blackhatters finding it harder to promote bullsh&t products though. Also agree that if google can't do it noone can. I think google is also making money here but can't see how. Perhaps by making sure the only Adverts online are theirs. Maybe a deal where Asa will ignore adsense content. Afterall would you bite the hand that feeds you.
12:05AM on 20th December 2010
I hate to go with the herd here, but one would have thought the ASA had better things to do with its time.
9:59AM on 20th December 2010
@dara bell - "I believe high pressure sales people will gravitate to the web in the next few years" I think these sort of people already gravitated to the web circa 1995 - 1997, they have been migrating to Internet Land ever since they heard the stories of gold to be found in them thar Internet Hills as published by all major newspapers. "Someone has to police it as we want to safe online." Not sure if anyone has pointed this out to you but there is an X is in the top right hand corner of the screen, it's the ultimate weapon in every web users arsenal, try pressing it once in a while, it works wonders. Who are you to decide who needs policing?
Publisher at 2N Media Ltd - ModernSelling.com
12:42PM on 20th December 2010
Online or offline, “bad” marketing and advertising is the same as “bad” selling and sales people.
And “good” sales people are just that too, online or offline. If you have a real question or problem, and then you can find an actual “expert” or “trusted advisor” who answers it for you – and which may well involve you buying something, you’ll a) be delighted and b) tell all your friends or colleagues.
The more complex the problem, the less likely any “marketing collateral” will be able to solve it for you, thus the rise of “conversations”. They’re currently still disguised as B2C “social media marketing” though, with the collateral/marketing/machine boys desperate to get their stuff into play – and which none of us want or can use, as you’re all mostly saying.
Policing what people say to each other, and why, is of course also quite a “biggie” though – and I wasn’t sure where those marketing folks paying our teenagers to “mention” Lady Gaga or whatever it was, on Facebook, fitted in to that. Is that the same as paying them to drop a leaflet through your letter box, or not?
3:12PM on 20th December 2010
thanks for the info but i guess small retailers wont have to worry right?"
SEM Manager at s1
3:13PM on 21st December 2010
I'm sure a few lucky people will make money out of this pointless campaign
3:21PM on 21st December 2010
This problem comes from the fact Google ranks sites through the number and quality of inbound links. We are all dancing to their stupid tune. They have created this mess! There is no chance the ASA will get to grips with this.
Digital Marketing Executive at NewcastleGateshead Initiative
5:33PM on 21st December 2010
What a waste of time, it would be like saying to one person they need to manually verify every phone number in the phone book is correct, by lunchtime. Looks like the ASA know as much about the internet as Ed Vaizey
Publisher at 2N Media Ltd - ModernSelling.com
5:47PM on 21st December 2010
Perhaps if they just start with a handful of sites that have peer-to-peer or possibly paid reviews, they'll get a better idea of the manpower needed?
I'd suggest Amazon, eBay, Facebook & Twitter, in the morning, and then see how it looks after lunch say...
8:07AM on 22nd December 2010
This is a joke, i`m curious how it will be implemented!, but what happends if i link to another site which is mine too.
8:51PM on 22nd December 2010
It won't happen as long as blackhatters are gaming Google (as long as there's money to make on the web).
Internet Marketing Consultant at Receptional Ltd.
12:25PM on 24th December 2010
This is crazy, and the BBC gets away with reprinting press releases from Facebook as news with graphs of doctored statistics about their growth that must have been directly sourced from the FB PR spin department. That's the sort of thing I want to see cracked down on.
5:11PM on 24th December 2010
What a stupidors idea, is this for real or some kind of prank?
12:43PM on 27th December 2010
I hate Google!
They say they do not penalise issues such as duplicate content but yet when other websites who have cleary used your content end up resulting in your own website dropping in the listings!
11:18PM on 27th December 2010
I wouldn't say that some guys need to justify existence of their jobs and organizations then create crap like this, but you may think it if you wish.
9:08AM on 4th January 2011
Interesting, especially as we buy links daily, i imagine the asa will struggle to find people at fault... not only must we as optimisers dramatically avoid any sentiment of paid link inclusions pointing to our client sites, we must now search for link bait rather than paid manipulation... It will make life hard, but should out some of the crap seo snake oil salesmen that give us a bad name. Heres to the future iDCx
Publisher at 2N Media Ltd - ModernSelling.com
10:12AM on 4th January 2011
As I was trying to point out initially iDC, it is really as simple as wanting to stop people lying or cheating, be that through "selling" or "marketing".
And one very good pointer I should mention in passing is when you can easily see, with names, photos, company names and so on, on discussion threads like this, who people are, and what or who they represent. Miles & Peter I "get", for example, Andrew a bit less, the rest, not so sure who they are, what they're linked to, why they think that, etc....
Creative Director at Foliovision
10:11AM on 6th January 2011
This is straight out of Orwell's 1984.
And it's anti-trust material. Only Google has the right to be compensated for links? The stuff of absurdist comedy if it weren't true.
Thanks for flagging this, Andrew.
12:30PM on 18th February 2011
Interesting to see how the ASA specified yesterday that SEO was now out of scope - a change of heart?