A series of unfortunate SEO specialist events.

SEO professionals have a difficult job. They work tirelessly to improve the search engine optimization of their clients' websites. Sometimes a client will decide to sever ties with the agency they have hired, voiding all of the time and effort invested in ranking a site.

One SEO agency found themselves in just such a position. A long-time client decided to move their website to a free hosting platform. They also dropped their domain name. The agency decided to pick up the domain and continue developing it on their own. The goal was to use the website to secure leads for the agency.

The experiment backfired when Yelp created a business page for the old domain. Suddenly, the agency found all of the former client's Yelp reviews being transferred to the domain they now owned. This created a problem. The agency reached out to the former client in an effort to correct the matter but did not receive a response.

This story sheds light on some of the ethical concerns that SEO professionals must tackle on a daily basis. For starters, agencies must work hard to maintain white hat methods of SEO. Google and other search engines will punish a site if it is discovered the site uses unethical means to get ranked. What the agency in question did with the former client's domain skates on the edge of what is ethical and what is not.

However, there is a lesson to be learned here about the importance of domain names. A business should safeguard an aged domain attached to their business. Starting over with a new domain can delay the ranking process. Losing an aged domain can essentially allow another business to steal customers. There is no prohibition against buying domains and developing them. In this case, the agency did not represent itself as the client and can therefore be absolved of wrongdoing.