Let me be clear, i do not endorse any type of behavior which is against the law, or any type of behavior which damage other people with the intention of harming them.
I do endorse fair competition, now the all discussion here is what “fair” is, is fair determined by the law, is it determined by Google, or by each person own mindset.
Does it even “fair” want my site, which is totally WH to be ranked above the other person WH site, that person may need the money more then I do, so…
“Fair” is a very problematic term .
let me 1st start by saying that SEO by my definition is taking advantage of understanding how the search engines algorithms are “thinking” and what they consider as “good” indications that a specific page is relevant to a “specific” search term and it is “better” then the other pages ranked below it when someone searches for the “specific” term.
I will tell you what “fair” is in my mind, if someone is using all of his knowledge and understanding of how Google works, and is able to convince the Google machine that his site is better the other person site, and this is done in such a way that the other guy who is now ranked below him, can, with sufficient amount of $$$, practice and education use the same techniques to rank higher again, this is fair, just like any sport game.
Again, I am talking about techniques which are not hurting the other site, but simply improving the site that ranks higher based on “quality indicators and relevance to the search term” in the Google machine eyes.
This is why, as I said from the 1st post in this thread, each webmaster, and especially in such a competitive industry like this, need to be on the leading edge of SEO understanding , and I am NOT talking about being a BH, I am talking about knowing and having the ability to use the latest tricks of the trade, since link exchange, which is an SEO trick is used my most of the people here , but this “trick” is an old one, and you need to learn the new tricks of the trade in order to survive.
again, not BH tricks, but SEO ones and there are so many out there, go read, educate yourself, the problem now days and it is going IMO be like this for a long time, is that Google is not perfect in deciding exactly which page is really better then the other in a perfect way (if there is any) so you need to help Google, and the best help is to talk the talk, and walk the walk, which means doing proper SEO for your site.