PostsHi, if a company (not an individual) wrote a review on a public domain, a libelous review I guess because they have named me personally rather than the business, as a fraud, it is also the second time that they have done it, first time I could not prove a link to this company when they stated we had trashed a property and electricuted the homeowner, but when I wrote a rebuttal naming this company, the review quickly disappeared within 24hrs. Now I can prove a link, via the reviewer's other glowing review of another company.
Then doing a backlink check on that company to find the link back to this vile business. The chances of it being pot luck review is zilch as this company is based up north and I'm in London.
On the flip side, I personally take no notice of reviews and assume that most are written by site owners unless a few negative remarks have been written to.
So the question is should I engage a solicitor or politely ask this company to remove it and ask for a written apology? I tried to make one myself found it to time consuming and confusing... In the end paid someone out in USA to make 2 of them for $25 each “You may find that these UK blue chip companies take some sort of legal action on this issue. Having worked in the corporate world for many years, I have seen this happen on numerous occasions. ”
Flicking around Twitter last night, this seo company was proudly announcing the launch of it's brand new website. Being a nosey sod I had to take a peek and to be honest I knew that these blue chip companies were not going to be listed, and guess what? Not a single mention of them ever having been clients. Fortunately their original screen shots and claims plus the denial letters have been handed into the court...  “There arent many folk I would think to recommend but OWG is definitely one so if he can help you are in good hands.
One thing though, you point out about what could/should you have expected them to do, but didnt you know or ask what they would be doing? What exactly did your order/quote consist of? There must have been some written dialogue in a quote and subsequent invoice that outlines what you were getting and any supporting information that you would have sought before entering into a contract surely? ”
Yep there was a purchase order listing 4 specific parts that they were to carry out. Only one part was carried out to my satisfaction. As a Gas Safe registered business, I am not allowed to promote, advertise or use any references to CORGI, whether other companies still do promote CORGI is irellevent, it is clearly written within the rules of being registered with the Gas Safe register which is overseen by the HSE, if we do we are liable to prosecution under the trading standards. Like I said 3 days after they started i wrote to them asking them to stop using CORGI terms, they havent removed any of it which I asked them to. So if I'm accountable and liable for prosecution because they have failed to rectify what I asked them to do should I pay them and then have to pay someone else to do it?
Putting the contract aside for a moment, would it be fair to say that what an seo company does, is to write, thats what they do for a living. So if that is the case, would it not be fair for a client to expect properly structured sentences? Or would this need to be written into a contract. After all if you order a new car, it is not written into the purchase contract that it will come with wheel nuts, because you the customer would rightly assume that it would automatically come with nuts right? Same thing, what is reasonably expected... “Hi Barney
Sympathise with your plight, and had a similar situation a few years ago. As someone else said, this will be down to the contract.
In my situation, I was very unhappy with the quality of the work, and removed access to our site as they were causing damage.
I withheld payment and cited them with breaking their own contract, as they hadn't provided me with a satisfactory service.
I took legal advice and was told it would be a costly court battle, as they were a large company, but I hate being ripped off, and it became a matter of principle.
After repeated attempts, I finally got into communication with the MD, and made it clear I would be pursuing legal action, and in the end we agreed to break contract and both parties walk away without court action.
It was an unpleasant experience, and has made me deeply cynical of SEO companies, and I've had further poor experience from another UK firm.
If you can settle out of court and break contract, then this is obviously the best alternative, but as evidence, I used a 3rd party application called site alarm, which logged any site outages. I was told at the time, this would carry more weight, as this was impacting our business, as opposed to poor link building practices or my perceived poor standard of their work.
SEO can be a murky world, but there are a lot of very professional consultants, and I've said before, I'd now only engage consultants from places like forums who have a good reputation.
Bit like word of mouth recommendation when your after a plumber or a sparky!
Wish all the best in your predicament. ”
It's all about principle for me, they had ample opportunity to rectify their mistakes, they simply have chosen not too. I could pay them now and walk away from it all. But then it happens to the next business and the next and so forth. After I have paid the legal fees, travel, loss of work etc I will have lost out financially anyway as I can only recoup certain costs from the court. On the flip side should I lose I can always take it to appeal, failing in that court... well have to see.... “I totally agree with you on this point! I am sick to the back teeth of cowboys in the my profession (online marketing), as I am sure you are in yours, but it won't be a simple process and won't remove all the not-so-professionals. ”
Any cowboys in my line of work, soon get outed and brought before the courts. Anything to do with gas related work then the cowboy will be issued with a prohibition notice from the HSE to stop work. As for seo companies, unless they do self regulate or agree to a code of conduct, then they should refrain from requesting large deposits up-front. At the moment the risk factor to a client is no different than picking dogs 2 x 6 on the 13.06 race a Crayford which cannot be right. What it needs is someone to take a leap of faith within the inner circles and give you guys some kind of credibility. I for one would never pay anyone up-front seo work again. I also think if more businesses to that stand it would force the industry to clean its act up. If you have no deposits coming in then you have no work... “This would be the man for you (not sure he would take it on) but would certainly carry some wait in court ( I have known him for years ) he has been on bbc etc
His personal site details ”
Thanks for the information, we spent around an hour chatting this morning and and he is very knowledgeable. And he clocked on straight away what was wrong with the site. I should also say he made more sense to me in 10 minutes than any seo company I have spoken to before. He's said he will take a look a look at it over the coming days. So hopefully something positive will come out of this... Once again thanks... “Hi Barney... you sound pretty mad!! I'm guessing you've paid out a wad and received shoddy service?
First of all let's all agree that there are cowboys in every trade and profession, ours and yours included BUT of course there are a multitude of good honest providers as I am sure are you (and us here too). SEO, done properly can give an incredible boost to a business. Done badly it can screw up the best of web sites, not done at all or only at half **** it will drain your wallet for no benefit.
Was there a solid contract with a detailed brief, listing requirements, time scales, and costs etc? If there was then I guess you should be able to demonstrate any failings easily enough. If you didn't have the foundation of a good contract and brief then it's going to be a "he said, no I didn't" head to head with probably no good outcome and a good deal of frustration.
My feeling is that you should consider what you've shelled out so far and if you head into legal action are you likely to recover your costs and retain your hairline? A lawyer is going to cost an arm and a leg and there are no guarantees of a succesful judgement. I suppose you could get advice, set out a letter of intent, listing your grievances and your expectation that wrongs be righted, money refunded or whatever it is you want to achieve and deliver it with the clear declaration of your intent to sue unless the situation is resolved within a reasonable time span. This may well be a bluff on your part but if it's done correctly and you have your facts right it may jolt the other party into action (good or bad remains to be seen).
I've no legal knowledge so this is just a quick thought processing ... what might I do in your situation? I've been through legal wrangles with non payers, theft of copyrighted materials, charlatans, and so on, luckily only rarely but I know that if you can't realistically gain anything, avoid the courts unless it's a simple straight forward County Court Judgement with minimal outlay.
As well as graphics I also operate a swift and anonymous knee-capping sideline if you'd like to book me in!!!
Good luck Barney, please don't tar everyone with the same sticky brush will you, there are some good people here who do SEO properly and will help you out with good advice if they can. cheers, Paul ”
I'm not sure that I do tar everyone with the same brush, I have another website that the work done was everything they said they were going to do and I am more than happy with it. However there is a principle of what should be expected over the standard of work. You would not expect an seo company to write a UK websites content in Spanish, even though that would not be written into a contract the client clearly would not expect it nor should he except it. I have given this company every opportunity to rectify their mistakes, which they have refused to do, I have asked them to show me exactly where the so called linking strategies are, I asked them 3 days after they started work to stop using references to CORGI but instead Gas Safe but they continued. If you asked my business to fit a new boiler for you, you would expect that the pipes and the electrics would also be connected, you would not expect us to unpack the boiler, fit 4 screws, hang it and invoice you.
As for the lawer I can tell you how much I am being charged which is around the Firstly I'd never pay double time, not knowing upfront what the single rate is
So if seo in the UK has no formal qualifications whatsoever then it is not a profession, it is a business that is based around guess work, trial and error, judgement and whatever else springs to mind. Am I correct in that surmise?
Would I be correct in expecting that a business that carries out seo work, would / should check the work that they have written in the cms and correct any gramatical errors, let alone making sure that all the drivel they write actually fits the content boxes? If I paid for linking strategies should I have expected this to be carried out? Or should I have just shrugged my shoulders and forgot about it? If I had paid them to carry out work by inserting my businesses on the Google free map listings, should I have expected this to have been done? Or should I not be bothered? If I wrote to them 3 days after they started work, to rectify clear mistakes that they had written, should I expect them to do this? Or should I just take it on the chin?
Just out of interest on this companies website, they claim to have clients which are UK blue chip companies, once I realised all was not well, I wrote to these companies and none of them had ever heard of or had work carried out by this seo company... Erm I think, it should take any competent person no longer than half a day at most. I'm a plumber and it only took me 5 minutes to recognize drivel, key word stuffing, gramatical errors and so forth. So I cannot for the life of me see what would need to be unravelled.
There must be a set standard of the way the work is carried out to comply with the major search engines most basic of guidelines. In other words good practice I know from past experience that I can telephone several seo companies one after the other, saying to them I'd like a quote to optomize my site, point them to one of my sites and they will all be saying that this, that and everything is wrong within a space of 60 seconds. I'm not even sure anymore as to whether seo work is a profession or just a bunch of have a go amateurs. Is there such a thing like a qualification for this type of work? And if so what is it? No offence meant or intended by the way 
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