1) Members or the companies they represent should not engage in any search marketing / social media technique that they know might cause harm to the client business / website without informed consent (members working on personal sites exempted).
2) Members or the companies they represent should not knowingly make factual misrepresentations concerning search marketing / social media as part of the sales process. Furthermore, they will not market or sell any worthless or misleading services or products to the public (e.g. Search Engine Submission or Guaranteed Search Rankings).
3) Members must not knowingly violate Google’s Webmaster Quality Guidelines.
4) Any Member or company they represent who contracts to provide search marketing or social media services to a client will fulfill all obligations that they agreed to provide.
5) Any Member or company they represent who subcontracts out search marketing or social media services as part of a client engagement will guarantee payment of any and all financial engagements to that subcontractor if the subcontractor performs the services that they were subcontracted for.
6) Any Member or company they represent will run their business operations and perform contracted services in a manner consistent with the highest level of ethics, honesty & integrity.
7) The Obligations of the Code of Ethics attach to the Member whether they are an employee of a company or a sole proprietor regardless of their business name, corporate formation, or employment status.
8) Members will follow these precepts in their business practices (taken from the American Marketing Association Statement of Ethics).
As Marketers, we must:
- Do no harm. This means consciously avoiding harmful actions or omissions by embodying high
ethical standards and adhering to all applicable laws and regulations in the choices we make. - Foster trust in the marketing system. This means striving for good faith and fair dealing so as to contribute toward the efficacy of the exchange process as well as avoiding deception in product design, pricing, communication, and delivery of distribution.
- Embrace ethical values. This means building relationships and enhancing consumer confidence in the integrity of marketing by affirming these core values: honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency and citizenship.
9) All SEMpdx sponsors are also expected to follow our Code of Ethics though they aren’t bound by it.
10) Any Member who violates the SEMpdx Code of Ethics is subject to disciplinary action by the Ethics Committee (which is selected by the Board of Directors).
The above SEMpdx Member Code of Ethics is effective as of January 1, 2016.
If you believe an SEMpdx member has violated the above Code of Ethics, then you may submit a Code of Ethics Violation Complaint form.