Web Sites, Search Engine Optimisation Services and Exclusion Clauses
SEO Marketing Campaigns

Setting out on a search engine marketing campaign (SEM) and briefing a search engine optimisation (SEO) company or expert involves entering a market where guaranteed results are rare and requires a leap of faith. Having a web presence though has little value without people being able find relevant results from their searches. When looking for an SEO, a background knowledge on how optimisation works and the practices penalised by search engine companies may assist you finding one that is right for you.

Optimising your presence for the best returns on your capital investment is a growth industry and you should keep in mind some key factors when briefing your SEO.

Link Popularity

Increasingly, search engines look for content and off-the-page factors to assess the importance of the page to the user - for instance they are able to record the frequency that a link is clicked which indicates how popular or useful a link is.

Red Flags and Loud Warning Bells

Practices to be avoided vary depending on the focus and content available from website to website. Keep in mind the pursuits of so-called spammers that have caused search engines to take measures to verify the integrity of their indexes, as they have an obligation to their users to deliver results that are relevant to the search. Dubious practices are penalised by search engines when a series of red flags are raised that indicate a web site is attempting to spam the search engine. Some of them are:

• words in the meta-title, meta-description and meta-keyword tags that are not included on the text of the web page
• repeating words in meta descriptions more than 3 or 4 times (keyword stuffing)
• hiding keywords in the ALT attribute for spacer images
• duplicating the contents of the title tag in the description tag literally

Essential Knowledge

Your SEO should know that:

• the meta-description and meta-keyword tags are important, they are not the be-all-and-end-all of the optimising a website.
• the meta-robots tag supposedly instructs the search engine to follow the links on the page. Not all search engines honour this instruction and rely instead on the contents of the robot.txt file.
• the meta revisit tag supposedly instructs the search engine to revisit the site in a designated timeframe. Ask your SEO what timeframe you should optimally set it at and wait for the response. It is a useless tag and a good SEO will know this. Search engines do their own indexing on their own schedule. The prospect that every page on the Internet could set a timetable is in the end preposterous.
• commas are irrelevant in keywords and only assist human readership.
• keywords in the URL or filename has a small impact on page rank, however not enough to justify the expense and cannot be considered a strong point in a simplistic optimisation review.
• misspelt words should only be included where they are commonly misspelt keyword terms.
• filter words are not indexed (e.g. “a”, “an”, “but”, “or”, “for”, “the”).

Dynamic Content

Often website search engine marketers state that search engines cannot follow links inside dynamically generated web pages and therefore conclude it is not a good idea to have dynamically generated web pages on your site. Dynamically generated pages in this context are those which determine their content by reference to the querystring in the URL. They enable apparently large websites like Amazon construct pages on the fly, based on the presumed interests of the browser by passing data from page to page.

The statement though is only partially true. Search engines do not like “(?)” in URL names. Other indicators for dynamically generated content are an @, $, =, + and %.

Search engines do not want the same content delivered to them over and over again which is the problem with URL combined with querystrings. Clearly search engines want their results to be accurate to best serve their users. By precluding web content which may change over time (which is the inference drawn from the presence of the "?" character in the querystring) search engines do not present results to their users that are inaccurate. In addition, dynamically URLs can trap a spider in its web and cause it to crash.

When Things Go Wrong

The worst possible outcome arising from briefing an SEO expert is your site being removed from search engine indexes. This can be catastrophic for a business and the damage can far outweigh what you pay for the service to a rogue or incompetent supplier. Therefore, practically speaking it is more important to focus on choosing the right suppliers than on legal remedies when things go wrong.

Before the site is updated, evidence of search engine performance should be retained in case a claim is brought later. This process preserves your options to request a refund of the amounts paid or take further action if it is warranted. Knowing where you stand, what you are entitled to, and what your options are approves the prospects of negotiating a settlement and in most cases adds to one's bargaining position.

Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977

Search engine optimisation services are subject to an implied term that the service provider will provide the services with reasonable care and skill. Any exclusions of liability are subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and, as such, must be reasonable. Therefore, the mere existence of a clause excluding liability for certain actions, will not automatically be enforceable. If the matter gets to court, the court will decide whether the exclusion is reasonable in all the circumstances. Whilst it is normally fair for an SEO to say that they cannot guarantee particular search placements (unless you are paying for that very thing), to exclude liability for substantially damaging your search engine performance is probably unreasonable and therefore unenforceable.

Limitations of Liability

Having legal remedies may however be of little practical help. You have the problem of proving the extent of your loss together with establishing a link between the damage of the search engine performance and a loss of business. That may be assumed if the timing of the losses of business directly relate to the drop in the search engine performance. However, the main problem can be in the extent to which you can claim result of losses. The exclusion clauses are again subject to being reasonable. Attempts to limit liability to a fixed sum or by reference to the value of the contract may or may not be enforceable dependent upon the relative bargaining position of the parties and whether there was opportunity to negotiate the position. If you have provable losses that substantial, you also have to weigh up whether the company can afford to pay the damages. They may carry insurance, but they may not. These are factors that require deliberate and thoughtful consideration when entering into contracts for SEO services.