Never thought this would happen...

I run a website where people advertise rental properties.

A company signed up and advertised their property. When creating their online ad they put the business name as the first part of the <title>.

All was well until they decided not to renew. And now a search for their business name returns my site above theirs. Actually, theirs doesn't rank high, even for their own business name. However, someone from this company is demanding I stop doing whatever it is I'm doing. I guess they think I'm ... I don't even know what to call it. They're mad because when someone searches for their company name they go to my site. And since they cancelled their ad then the page containing their ad redirects to my search page.

I just checked again and G/Y/M have recently dropped my site out of their top results so it's no longer a problem(?). But just in case something similar happens in the future.

Just wondering if anyone had any '2-cents' they wanted to throw in. Any ideas on what would be the best thing to tell them? if anything at all.

This guys emails were quite entertaining. A short excert, "you let the search engines know that you are not to use my name to direct traffic to your site."

I was debating over posting here until I saw someone with a similar problem in the business->legal forum.

 

Ignore them. You can't be held responsible for where the search engine places your site based on people's search terms.

 

Somewhere in there you´ve got a great sales pitch the next time you sell an ad.

You have to let them know that you have no control over Google. Buying ads on-line is not like buying ads in a newspaper where you pull the ad and it´s gone. You´ve got a well ranked site and that´s what they paid to advertise on. You did your part, very well. Now their problem is not with your site but with the poor SEO of their own.

If you really want them off your back, take a few minutes to look at their site and give them a couple of SEO pointers then say nice doing business with you, fellas, let me know if you want me to recommend a good SEO.

 

I ran into this once. I created a short email - sent it to Google and to the customer. A week later - they were still showing up on my site. But when they called me - I told them I emailed them & that was the best I could do. I told them they would need to call Google. (never heard from them again!)

 

Had a similar problem last year...I found one of their competitors who was more than willing to pay the $50 a month to take away all those good leads!

 

Nice

<<Just wondering if anyone had any '2-cents' they wanted to throw in. Any ideas on what would be the best thing to tell them? if anything at all.>>

tell them you cannot control googles cache...and leave it at that.

 

I would've taken that as an advertising opportunity. Maybe tried offering the space to a competitor or at least let it be known that advertising space is available on the page.

 

I also would have used it to sell them back to your program.

Not only are you better than they are, you are bigger and have all the chips...tell them to renew and that is the only way they are going to get traffic.

When you have the upperhand, you need to maximize your position.

 

The idea of going after the business is a good one.

Sometimes it's hard to go from "programmer guy" to "making money business guy." Thanks to everyone for their input.

 

That is my biggest shortcoming. I can relate.