Bob Browning's blog

On e-consultancy this week the following post – names changed to protect the possibly innocent:

We started to work with Xxxx and received no results. Our Googole Page-Rank is lower then before. (sic) We payed in advance and trying to get the money back. …

My response:

I have never heard of them before, but according to their web site Xxxx will do things like:

• Keyword analysis
• Create a sitemap
• Submit to search engines
• Submit to directories
• Optimise web pages (headlines, link structure etc)
• Check for compliance with standards
• Rename html files

This all sounds like standard SEO good practice. They don’t suggest that they have some magic new technology. The problem is that even doing all this, Google can change its algorithms so that you drop in the rankings.

Question. Did they promise
(a) to do the above or
(b) to improve your rankings?

If (b) then your were mis-sold because nobody can guarantee to get you top ranking. The rankings are a moving target. You can justifiably ask for your money back on the basis of mis-selling.

However if they just promised (a) to optimise your site using SEO best practice and your rankings got worse, then you have a much harder job of work. Maybe you would have dropped even further down the rankings without their efforts. You have to prove they were not competent in what they did.