Some SEO Consultants and SEO companies break the rules (the guidelines set out by the search engines) all the time - this is generally considered black hat or unethical SEO.  However, sometimes breaking the rules can lead to increased notoriety and popularity.

Internet marketing blogger Shoemoney’s makes a good point with his latest post on John Chow and Google’s dilemma.  John Chow clearly violated Google’s guidelines  - “he was selling text links,  doing paid posts, and he had this whole thing going where if you liked to him with the words “make money online” then he would link back to you.  He did this for what seemed like months and he quickly moved up to #1 for “make money online”  which of course made Google look stupid (reciprocal links don’t work right?) so they nuked his ranking for that.”

However, John Chow is doing better than ever, and Shoemoney states that this is proof that great brands does not need Google.  And sure - if you are Nike or BMW, you probably do not need Google to be successful.  On the other hand, most businesses are not on that level, and appearing on the first page of Google and the other search engines for relevant terms can drive massive amounts of targeted traffic - and this can make the difference between success and failure.

Clearly, a company that depends on their Google ranking should avoid breaking the search engine guidelines; on the contrary, no one should put all their eggs into one marketing basket - therefore, conducting a complete online marketing campaign that focuses on Yahoo and MSN as well building brand equity online is ideal.