Yes, if the web company has asked permission and fully explained the implications to their client (no typical in my experience).

No, if the implications haven’t been explained. You see, most website owners might not be fully aware that the way search engines like Google convey ‘authority’ ie make a site rank well in searches is a combination of factors. One of these factors (and still quite an important one today) is the number of links pointing to a site. So if said web company has hundreds of links from their customers’ sites pointing to their own site then they’ll benefit from it. You could argue that they are materially benefiting from it and that makes it a somewhat dubious thing if it is done in a ‘grey’ way.

Similarly, some websites have additional text like “ecommerce websites in a town” or “SEO by seocompany” in addition to the common “website by” link. All of these are taking away part of the authority of the host site and passing it onto a third party. Not good.

So, if you’re a website owner, take a close look at what links you can see on your site and ask yourself — how are they benefiting you?

(P.S. Yes we do, but only occasionally and with the owner’s full informed agreement.)

Microsoft’s ‘Bing’ search engine has been attracting a lot of attention and so more people have been checking out its performance against their normal search engine. Whilst this doesn’t mean that Bing will overtake Google anytime soon, it does present a couple of questions for the small business owner.

1) Does my web site show up on a search on Bing?

2) Are my competitors listed on Bing?

There are definitely opportunities to gain an advantage by getting your site listed on any major, new search engine like Bing. Whilst the search numbers might be low compared to Google, you can still generate significant amounts of traffic for your business site.