Can Bad SEO Advice Support a Negligence Lawsuit?

Check out this post by Eric Goldman on his Technology & Marketing Law Blog about how bad SEO advice could support a negligence claim as seen in D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone, Inc..  (As an aside, I found this article at Associates Mind – another blog that appears to be way better than this one and which makes me jealous).

According to the complaint, a small home appliances business and Google were sued by the business’s web developer.  As Mr. Goldman points out, the more interesting aspect of the complaint is the counter claim.  In the counter claim, the small business seeks damages for the web developer building a second business website that appears to have had duplicate content with the original website.  If you didn’t know, Google doesn’t like duplicate content.

Mr. Goldman does a great job explaining the nature of the counter claim:

On the negligence claim, Sigman argued that D’Agostino claimed to be an SEO expert but negligently triggered a duplicate content penalty. Finally, Sigman claimed that D’Agostino breached their contract by “jeopardizing defendant’s website, violating Google policies, and causing the interruption of defendant’s enterprise.”

I’ve been putting a lot of time and effort into my law firm website and to blogging.  There is a lot of information out there about “white hat” versues “black hat” search-engine-optimization.  As I concluded in a prior post, SEO is mostly bull shit in the respect that you don’t need a guru.  What you should do is focus on a niche and write authoritatively with good content.  Simple.

Anyway, as Mr. Goldman points out, there may actually be negative ramifications for asserting that you are some sort of SEO guru and trying to sell your wares to the next gullible buyer.  I can’t tell you how many SEO gurus have either tried to comment on this blog or sent me random, un-asked-for emails:  trying to sell me their SEO secrets to big, big money.

As I posted earlier, there is no trick to garnering tons of hits on a blog and free money.  It takes work, good writing, interesting topics, and time.  Furthermore, it would help to be like Lawyerist, Above the Law, or many other legal related blogs out there that have what appears to be an army of writers.  I’m not saying this is a bad thing – a lot of good content gets posted that way.  However, it is certainly hard for a small-fish like me to make headway when they are writing so much and so well.

In any case, this case shows why SEO gurus should be denied access to your wallet as you try to get your law firm marketing together and think about how to start a law firm.  There is simply no substitute for good work and good content.

Law Firm SEO B.S.

I think I may be having a sea change.  I enjoy being a blogger, I enjoy writing, I mostly enjoy being an attorney.  What I don’t enjoy is being a slave to search-engine-optimization (SEO).  SEO is crap.  You want to know a secret, SEO sort of works but it makes you evil.  There are no easy answers or simple solutions to starting an maintaining a law practice – other than to network and do good work. We are in a people profession.  Think about it.

My new thing is blogging on what I want to write about and, yes, mostly on starting a law firm because that is what I am doing right now.  If you like my thoughts/advice, great – I hope it helps you.  But, no more of this SEO crap.  Sorry for any prior posts on the issue.  I still believe in marketing and won’t apologize trying to market my law firm but certain kinds of marketing attracts the wrong kind of clients and people.

As an aside – blogging on a topic you enjoy and putting up a lot of quality content is certainly not going to hurt if you are trying to start a firm.  I’m not saying blogging is a bad idea – if you like it.  What I am saying is that you shouldn’t listen to all of the SEO B.S. that is out there.  Avoid the SEO gurus.  Seriously.

Blogging for legal business is fine.  It helps.  But, doing it just to make Google or some other search engine like your blog is silly.  Write good content – you would be surprised on how many hits you get on your blog when you do that.  Be an authority.  When you write well about something you are passionate about, people notice.  They come to your blog because it is witty, funny, informative – whatever.  So make it your own.  Blog about your practice area in a new and different way.  Don’t just throw mud at the wall to see if it sticks.  You will wear yourself out doing that and you will quit.

I believe Google has a moto of “don’t be evil.”  I feel like I’ve been a little evil.  Sorry.  But, mark my words, I don’t apologize for giving advice on starting a law firm.  Some of it is good, some of it is bad, you decide that for yourself.