One of the most respected companies within the SEO Industry in Scotland is being sued for Defamation and Libel. I ain’t going to get into the nitty gritty of the details in-case the company doing the suing turn their attention to myself but I’ll give you a quick run-through of what actually happened.
Before I actually start I want to draw your attention to the privilege of free speech…
Privilege
Privilege is the defence where the law recognises that individuals should be free to speak their minds (and others to report what they say) without fear of being sued even if they get their facts wrong. It allows people to speak freely in court proceedings and debates in Parliament, and allows for such proceedings to be reported, so long as the reports are both fair and accurate.
Okay here’s the story so far…
Company A (The Respected Scottish SEO Company) started winning a few clients from Company B (The Company serving the Libel) and with the new contracts came stories of how Company B was behaving. So, Company A decided to release an article to the public to make them aware of how Company B was behaving without actually naming them in the process.
Now Company B gets a whiff of this and also sees their name printed in a comment from a third-party in a completely different website that was talking about Company A’s Article.
So, Company B rinse themselves down in Persil and go after Company A with a Libel claim for Defamation against their character. If you could scratch the screen right now you would smell the paranoia coming from Company B – no matter how much they tried to rinse themselves.
And that ladies and gentlemen is the story so far…
I have been crying out for awhile now [God, I have even written articles about seedy SnakeOil SEO Companies] and still businesses turn to them in their droves trying to save a few bucks and then wonder how they got burnt in the process.
We need some standardisation in this industry – I really don’t know what is the best plan to go forward with this, perhaps a body can be set-up where you apply for membership and then your previous sites get validated and anything that looks shoddy or inept disallows you from being accepted.
A badge like the UKWDA would be a start – I don’t know how the funding would operate but it would need some finance. My initial thoughts it would be best with Governmental funding instead of Private then there would be no whoring of the membership rights for bigger acceptance cheques. It would stop respected companies like Company A getting Libel cases and having to out certain companies and their some-what dubious business practices.
Say NO to Snake-Oil SEO!
