Liability - the risk of poor practies as an SEO Agency
Well, for a long time now I’ve been bumping into muted exposure for seo malpractice coverage, and seeing law firms at search shows quietly waiting in the wings for folks to realize their butts ARE truly on the line.
Looks like an old story has come back around to haunt one Washington state company. The basics of the story are this:
1 - they call you up and solicit your business while promising top rankings
2 - you buy into the prices for a monthy fee, billed to your credit card on a recurring basis
3 - you get a bit of work from them, then they basically disappear
4 - you call to talk to someone, maybe they answer, maybe they don’t
5 - you ask to cancel your contract, maybe they do, maybe they don’t
All bad situations as it’s your hard earned cash floating into their pockets for no return.
Well, the state of Washington has had enough complaints filed about one company since 1995 that they are taking them to court.
So, now, let’s think about this for a minute.
This appears to be the beginning of the tightening of things for the industry, at least in concept. Starts with scattered lawsuits, then grows from that visibility. ‘Bout time, too. Far too many companies exist to scrape money from unwitting businesses. There has been precious little activity in this arena and many times calls have gone out across the industry for regulations. No one is willing to step in front of THAT bus, so the industry, while acknowledged as a real, reliable way to effectively market, remains tainted by stories of many shifty folks.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again - if WE don’t regulate things and set up accoutabilities, someone will step in and do it for us. Get enough lawsuits filed, and some enterprising young Senator (so that means they’d be under 70 or so… 
) will step forward with a bill that will, for all it’s best intentions, no doubt screw vast numbers of those in the industry.
Far, far too easy for the media to say this is spam, and we’re plastered with that foul stench.
Do I have the answer? No more than many of you. But I do belive it starts with someone doing something. Everyone doing nothing certainly isn’t the way forward.
PS - ConsumerAffairs - ditch the popups that hit me when I visit your site already…
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