Are SEO tools making express warranties about the capabilities of their products or is it mere puffery? I believe that an argument can be made based on who receives the advertisement and based on their knowledge of the SEO industry that a reasonable person can take certain statements made by tools as a promise to return specific results, and not just a sales pitch which should be dismissed in the same manner one would dismiss a statement by a used car sales person.

According to an email advertisement that I receive almost daily from Site Pro News, “IBP is a proven tool that helps you to get top 10 rankings in Google, Yahoo and all other major search engines.” The ad further states, “it helps you to get at the top of the search results. IBP tells you in three easy steps what you have to do to improve your web pages for top 10 search engine rankings.”

As an SEO consultant, I know how ridicules these claims are, and I would certainly not take them as a warranty, but I fear that many of the recipients of these types of emails will indeed rely on such promises as fact. I know very well that onsite optimization is not as simple as tweaking your code, and copying someone else title tags. I know for example, you need to write unique content that not only uses your keywords, but you need to surround those terms with like terms. I know for example that offsite optimization might require submission to directories, but I also know that a listing in Yahoo or http://www.business.com/ is much more advantageous then a listing on http://www.4do.org.

If you take a closer look at the law, specifically the Uniform commercial code, Chapter 2, which governs the sale of goods, you will find statutory regulations directly on point. One such rule states that if a reasonable person relies on the promises of an advertisement and the advertiser has reason to believe that such a person will rely on their statements, than an express warranty will be created. If such a warranty exists, one of two things needs to happen. Either 1.) The company must make good on its promise, or 2.) A suite can be brought for breach of express and implied warranty, breach of covenant of good faith that is inherent in every commercial contract, and several other legal causes of action.

The bottom line is these tools do not and can not do what they promise. If a jury finds that a reasonable person would rely on the promises, IBP, Web Position, and others could find themselves in a world of trouble. However, the flip side for all of us in the SEO industry is that we are the ones who will take the real hit, as consumers are going to link us, the SEO consultants to the companies who put out the tools and that could be a disaster for all of us.