Search Warren Buffett for an example. Number 1 is, at this time, warrenbuffet dot com.

That site was put up by an SEO/Internet Marketer that I know and he makes money through adsense and running ads for affiliate products from time to time. It’s been up for years and WB cannot legally have it taken down.

However, the site is about Warren Buffett. The question then becomes, is making money off of someone’s good reputation OK if there is no damage done to the person’s reputation? Visitors to the site no doubt think that Warren Buffett is the owner of the site but he is not.

What if someone were to use this method to drive traffic to a page where the “victim’s” name is used in a side-by-side comparison of his services versus the advertiser’s services? The ad then becomes relevant to Google and to visitors and still takes advantage of the person’s established reputation.

Is this method ethical if the page is relevant to the person’s name and therefore useful to the end user?

The deeper problem here folks is that competition will only intensify as more attorneys fight for the same number of clients. Only the smartest entrepreneurs will thrive.

After reading your article, I Googled my law firm’s name (The O’Sullivan Law Firm) and found that the largest personal injury law firm in Colorado was using my firm’s name as an Adword. I know the founders of the firm and I will contact the immediately and ask them to stop. Do you have any suggestions if they don’t stop using my law firm’s name as an Adword?

On a similar topic, my SEO company has found that someone in the Denver market is interfering with other law firm’s local Google listings. Essentially, someone is attacking the top organic map listings for personal injury and causing the local Google accounts to become inactive and forcing the owner to have to reclaim their listing. I have had to reclaim my local account three times this past year. My SEO company can’t figure out who is doing this and it is very frustrating.

Thank you for speaking out about this issue.

ScottO’Sullivan