Purpose and scope
This Acceptable Use Policy sets out what we will and will not do, and what we expect from clients and partners. It applies to all engagements with CordyTraff and forms part of every services agreement we sign.
We work in competitive and often regulated verticals. Clear boundaries protect our clients' domains, our team and our reputation — so we would rather state them publicly than negotiate them case by case.
What we will not promote
We do not accept work that promotes, facilitates or advertises:
- Anything illegal in the jurisdiction being targeted;
- Unlicensed activity in a market that requires a licence — including gambling, financial services, and regulated health or pharmaceutical products;
- Fraud, deceptive financial schemes, fake investment returns or guaranteed-profit claims;
- Malware, phishing, credential harvesting or any form of unauthorised access;
- Counterfeit goods or infringement of another party's intellectual property;
- Content that sexualises minors, or any material involving the exploitation of children;
- Human trafficking, forced labour, or the sale of people or organs;
- Weapons, explosives or controlled substances where sale is unlawful in the target market;
- Harassment campaigns, targeted abuse, or content inciting violence or hatred against a person or group;
- Disinformation campaigns, or content designed to manipulate elections or public health decisions.
Search practices we do not use
We will not deploy techniques that put a client's domain at material risk or that harm third parties, including:
- Hacked-site links, parasite hosting or placements obtained through unauthorised access;
- Comment, forum or wiki spam, and automated mass link injection;
- Cloaking, sneaky redirects, or serving materially different content to crawlers and users;
- Doorway pages, scraped content or mass auto-generated content published without review;
- Negative SEO of any kind against a competitor;
- Fake reviews, fabricated testimonials, or manufactured press coverage presented as genuine;
- Impersonating a real person, brand or publication in outreach.
Where a technique sits in a grey area, we explain the risk in writing and let the client make an informed decision. We will not proceed with anything we consider likely to trigger a manual action without that written acknowledgement — and we may still decline.
Regulated verticals
In regulated verticals — including gambling, finance, crypto and health — we require, before work begins:
- Evidence of the licences or authorisations the client holds, and the markets they cover;
- Agreement on the advertising standards applying in each target market;
- Correct affiliate and sponsorship disclosure on all published content;
- Age-gating and responsible-play or risk warnings where required;
- Exclusion of markets where the activity is prohibited or the client is not licensed.
If a market cannot be worked compliantly, we will say so and exclude it from the plan.
Client responsibilities
When you engage us, you confirm that:
- You own or are authorised to instruct changes to the properties in scope;
- Information you provide about licensing, ownership and compliance is accurate and kept current;
- Material you supply for publication does not infringe third-party rights;
- You have a lawful basis for any personal data you ask us to process, and that you will provide a Data Processing Agreement where one is required;
- You will not ask us to carry out anything prohibited by this policy.
Outreach and communications standards
All outreach carried out on a client's behalf identifies the sender honestly, states the commercial nature of the request where relevant, honours opt-out requests immediately, and complies with applicable electronic communications and anti-spam law in the recipient's jurisdiction. We do not buy scraped contact lists or send at volumes intended to evade filtering.
Reporting a concern
If you believe work associated with CordyTraff breaches this policy — including outreach you have received, or content published in our name — report it to abuse@cordytraff.com. Include the URL or message, the date and as much detail as you can. We acknowledge reports within two business days and investigate every one.
Enforcement
Where a client asks us to breach this policy, we will refuse, explain why and propose a compliant alternative. Repeated or serious breaches entitle us to suspend work immediately and to terminate the engagement under the termination provisions of the relevant services agreement, without refund of fees already earned.
Changes
We update this policy as regulation and search guidelines change. Clients under an active engagement are notified in writing of material changes before they take effect.