Several weeks ago, we discussed the debate over if Google treats SEOs as criminals. We even polled our readers on that question and the results were split.
In any event, if you believe this to be true, or even if you don’t but you don’t want to risk it, you might want to do your best to not be labeled as an SEO.

Winning the Web posted a piece named 7 Red Flags that Reveal to Google You’re an SEO Criminal – Avoid These!. He goes through save things to avoid, in order not to be profiled as an SEO. Here are those points, in short form:

You have a big mouth about your SEO tacticsYour sites are all tied together = easy targetYour site is over-optimized for certain keywordsYour link profile is unnaturalYou use the nofollow link attribute to sculpt PageRankYou buy or sell obvious paid linksYou use SEO and links to get a spammy site to the top of the rankings

On a personal level, I find it funny that I fall for some of these and I am not an SEO. I mean, I write about SEO and know a heck of a lot about SEO through writing and hands on work, but I don’t sell “SEO services.”

In any event, is it better to be safe then sorry?

Forum discussion at Sphinn.