SEO- liability

[gray123]

With the regular changes in Googles algorithm, it is hard to guarentee that there will not be a slip in ranking when the next update happens. For those of you who do SEO for clients, maybe on a monthly basis, if your clients rankings dropped drastically in google can they come after you and sue you?

 

[Stacked4Life]

No. You need to make sure you have a good terms of service page on your site with a link in the footer saying that they cannot come after you. Also put something in your FAQ page abut it and your good to go. IMO

 

[FutureProofSeo]

As long as you make it clear that you "never guarantee rankings" then you will be fine.

You are providing a service to help improve, and it's very similar to gambling.

FPS

 

[thiazi]

I think it's very difficult to guarantee anything since you're relying on a third party service that you have very little control over. Google can make changes at any time and for any reason. For that reason, guarantees are hard to... well, guarantee.

 

[ID Internet Marketer]

agreed, you need make it clear to clients first before dealing
put refund policy and faq pages in your site

 

[kbklash]

Google makes many updates in a year. If you don't keep up with the changes or have a team in place that can do it for you, drop of ranking etc will happen frequently. so better you have a good team and and terms of service page ready.

 

[jascoken]

It's all about setting clear boundaries and expectations at the start. Anyone promising results on an extended timescale is putting themselves at risk.

Your contract or 'heads of terms' should lay out all contractural expectations and caveats.

 

[longterm]

While doing Penguin/manual action audits I've seen cases where the SEO should have been sued/jailed/whatever. ;-) Seriously thought, if an SEO was acting negligently or in bad faith, I think that would be something to discuss with a qualified lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction(s).

If you want to guarantee that there will not be a slip in ranking when the next update happens, then the guarantee should have explicit terms.

e.g. "the last 90 days work will be refunded". In that situation I'd prefer a performance based deal.

 

[DamageX]

If you want to guarantee that there will not be a slip in ranking when the next update happens, then the guarantee should have explicit terms.

And get them in writing and have the client sign the agreement.