Maintaining a website is just the tip of the iceberg for professionals engaged in online marketing. There are many more options available to professionals fishing for business, depending on their technological comfort level. Today’s professionals also compete for prime domain names and utilize tools to manipulate “searchability.” Commanding that top spot on search engine results can be crucial to a marketing campaign by taking advantage of the reportedly 3-4 billion number of google searches per day. As a result of these staggering statistics, some firms purchase search terms to quickly direct users to their site. This practice is not free of risk.
A recent order by the Grievance Committee of the North Carolina State Bar demonstrates the ethical issues firms encounter when they seek to manipulate search terms in an effort to attract potential clients. In the order issued last month, the grievance committee censured a lawyer after he bought keywords including the names of other lawyers, law firms, and judicial officers. Search engine users who searched these terms were not directed to the attorney’s competition, but rather to advertisements purchased by the offending lawyer. Prior to his censure, the Grievance Committee issued an ethical opinion stating that it was a violation of the state’s ethical rules for an attorney to purchase the name of another as part of an internet key-word advertising scheme.
In his defense, the attorney argued that he had purchased keywords in bulk and was not aware of the specific terms purchased. The Grievance Committee found that the lawyer’s history of keyword searches suggested that he specifically selected and approved the terms. Even if he did not, the Grievance Committee found that it was incumbent upon the lawyer to scrutinize each of the terms he purchased to make sure that they did not run afoul of the ethical rules.
Manipulating search terms is a fairly common marketing technique. But it is not without ethical ramifications. Although it might not be unethical to buy search terms, certain limitations apply. Before purchasing search terms, professionals should be careful to review the applicable ethical rules to ensure that the practice is permissible. Professionals must scrutinize the proposed terms to ensure that they comply with the local rules.