Can you sue

[chippyb]

Could I sue a link building company if they completey ruined all my rankings and refuse to at least give me a refund for killing every single ranking i had and not improving like they all offer.

 

[D600]

Perhaps you can if they made promises or guarantees which were not met however so you would sue them for not providing what they offered.

If they didn't promise increases that were guaranteed then I wouldn't bother

 

[tifosi]

Ultimately, that's the problem with ALL the 'seo' companies - normally india/far east based - who say they'll get you up the rankings by link building.

What they really do is go on a mass comment spamming spree on any and every site they have on their db that allows comments with some inane 'we love your blog, have bookmarked it. visit our site xyz.com' comment, that at best gets zapped by the blog owner (ME!) and at worst results in an indexed link from a non-authority site that when google tots up new inbund links per timeframe results in your site being penalised for spam link-building.

These companies have got away with it for quite a while. Panda/penguin certainly have targetted this link building method... quite rightly to.

So, really, caveat emptor...

 

[chippyb]

We they did say on the website ranking improvements guaranteed, which when you have about 10 top ten keywords in google and about 15 other keywords ranking and they all fall out of the top 100 so you are left with a site that is now worthless I would say that is very bad going.

you say they have no control but they have some, if they do bad things like that have ie blackhat im guessing they know that is going to ruin someones site

btw it is a UK company as well

 

[getmein]

If the links are under their control, I'd ask them to remove everything they have done and then see where you stand.

 

[Admin]

I have received threats of being sued if I didn't remove links from DomainPrices.co.uk

Try it, they don't know if you will follow though or not.

Some sample wording:

This is an urgent request as our website has been penalised by Google. After contacting Google they have advised us that we must remove all anchor text links to our website to recover. Many of these links were built by a dishonest SEO company who used spam link tactics without our knowledge and now will not help us remove them.

Please understand that we have to consider any anchor text links to be potential harmful and we must do everything we can to try and get them removed to recover from our penalty. If the links are not removed as soon as possible then we will have to take further action such as requesting a DMCA takedown notice or reporting the links directly to Google.

The links which we need removing appear on the following pages of your website:

Admin

 

[bb99]

I think you'd need to go back to the T&Cs and/or contract that you agreed with them, that way you can compare what they actually did VS what they said they were going to do.

 

[peter_w]

Could I sue a link building company if they completey ruined all my rankings and refuse to at least give me a refund for killing every single ranking i had and not improving like they all offer.

Good luck convincing a court it was the SEO companies fault that your rankings tanked.

 

[Alien]

btw it is a UK company as well

Are they an Acorn member too?

 

[chippyb]

Are they an Acorn member too?

Not that im aware of

 

[scottmccloud]

Personally I'd just take it on the chin.

Legal action (if you could find a solicitor who specialises in this kind of thing AND who would be willing to take your case on) could prove to be hugely expensive.

 

[namealot]

You could sue anyone can would you win I doubt it… …. To win any legal action would be down to the contract and unless they were complete morons... Even if you were to win would you get anything from a limited liability company doubt they’d have any assets...

 

[D600]

I'd tell them that you will and see I know people who have tried and failed in the past in court.

 

[monaghan]

I guess it would be difficult to prove in law, much of SEO is open to many different interpretations. If you can demonstrate methods used in violation of any of the major search engine guidelines then you may stand a chance. I'd suggest finding that legal someone sufficiently clued up may be the biggest challenge.

 

[namdas]

To be honest I think it will be hard to win a case - and it is likely that the web site is recoverable.

Have you looked at a report of the links you have built? Even if it comment spam etc the issue is likely to not be type of link, more likely that they have been overly aggressive with a particular anchor text - and if that is the case then it is fixable by building new links with url/generic/branded anchors, though it might take a month or so after the new links are built before it pops back.

If they are not super spammy links I'd recommend you ask that they help you recover by building some new links FOC, but if they are of the forum profile/comment spam type you're probably better off buying a bunch of cheap paid directory links for $10-15 each to dilute the anchor text.

 

[kate-brownhill]

If the links are under their control, I'd ask them to remove everything they have done and then see where you stand.

That would be the best option but i very much doubt these companies have control over their links. This should really be the first question any person looking for an SEO company should ask:

"In case anything goes wrong, can you guarantee complete removal of every link in less than 3 months?" If the answer is no, i would think very carefully before going ahead. There is not one link on any site that we ever worked on that i am unable to, if needed, contact the webmaster and have it removed promptly.

With regards to legal action, unless its a large company/seo agency, then you might as well concentrate your efforts either rebuilding a new site or working hard at removing the links yourself.

Good luck,
Kate

 

[dashu1]

Yes going to court is a total pain, we're in the middle of a small claims court action taking a non paying customer to court, and it's a farce beyond belief.

In small claims the judge only needs to be 51% sure in one parties favour or the other to make his/her decision, but you need to be able to prove your case, and if the other party want to they can make it very difficult by trying to obfuscate the truth and make claims that you then need to spend time, effort, and money refuting.

Unless it's cost you a substantial amount of money I wouldn't bother.

On the other hand if you're a member of your local chamber of commerce they have free legal help, so that might be worth a punt.