Can Offensive Speech Be Good SEO?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Apparently, someone thought it might be fun to run a Facebook poll asking whether President Obama should be assassinated. It turns out that 751 people responded to the poll; that is, they answered the question. That was before the poll was taken down.

Of course, now everyone in Twitterville and the Blogosphere are talking about it. Linking to this story, that story, and everything but the poll (because it was removed). But if it wasn’t removed, I’m sure it would be getting tons of links.

So, the question: Can offensive speech or inappropriate content be good for search engine optimziation? Unfortunately, online, you can draw links and get a lot of attention for all sorts of offensive behavior. Such links can potentially benefit you. But if you go around advocating assassinations and such then you are likely to bring upon yourself more trouble than the benefits are worth. Just a friendly reminder to think before you leap. Just because you have the technological capability to do something doesn’t mean you should.