In seo there are basically 2 or 3 schools of thoughts. The main school of thoughtout is actually to stay 'whitehat' which means playing by the search engines rules 100% of the time. The main other school of thought is to play it 'blackhat' which means not adhering to the rules. There is also one other school of thought and that is 'greyhat' which means you do want to play by the search engines rules mostly, however dont mind blurring of the lines.
Which method you go for is totally up to you, there is even evidence if you technically stay whitehat you can still get punished. So above all else do your research and make an informed decision.
