So I get this email from a local company that is angry because my client is now on the first page in the search results. His gripe is that we can’t advertise for a location we are not directly in…No, I am not joking. We optimized for a location in Sarasota, Siesta Key, but the business is based in Nokomis, just south of Sarasota and I really mean just south.

Complaint #1

“You aren’t located on Siesta Key so you can’t advertise for it”. He tells me it is illegal. If this was so no one in America could advertise in anyway, shape or form. I tried to explain, but he just didn’t understand, or so I thought…I will explain later.

Complaint #2

To avoid anymore harassment from this fellow I am going to create a fictitious, but similar example of what happened. Let’s say that there is an LLC called, “Key Biscayne Ferrari” and let’s say for my client’s site we optimized for “Key Biscayne Ferrari Rentals”. His complaint was that his business name was in the title tag because we had “Key Biscayne Ferrari”. in the tag, but we had rentals after it, an entirely different phrase…He said this was illegal.

I tried to explain that this was in fact not illegal.

Business Owners Paying for SEO, Please Read…

If you have a business named after a location and a product it does not mean that no one else in the universe can use that phrase. I could get upset that people all over the Web blog about “SEO Aware” Web developers, WordPress developers, Web design companies, etc. I can get upset, but I have no legal leg to stand on. I chose a name that is a phrase, one that cannot be Copyrighted. Therefore people can use the phrase and I must advertise better to get the response I need or want.

This man contacted my client first and scared her. I have been told that this individual has threatened other businesses and they complied with his request to remove phrases from their sites.  If you are ever contacted by someone threatening to sue you because your site is doing well in the SERPs please don’t panic. Contact your SEO company and discuss it with them. Reputable companies will not put you in a bad position. If you feel you must contact an attorney please do so. Our attorneys chuckled when we sent the emails to them and agreed he had no leg to stand on.

Melissa –SEO Aware

UPDATE

Search Engine Land added this article to their SearchCap for July 20-09. Thanks Barry!