Internet Advertising

[mateus]

State of Tennessee.

My question pertains to internet law and what my legal responsibilities are when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for a real estate website. The current situation is this. Realtor Jane Doe worked for a major brand name real estate office for 5 years. During that time she had a website that was optimized for several real estate keyword terms in an effort to rank highly in the search engines for those terms. Many of the efforts taken included submissions to different directories, advertising portals, real estate forums, etc., all of which had some descriptive text about who she was and where she worked. Many of these sites syndicate to other sites and so on which has led to over 3,000 different links pointing to her website.

Earlier this year, Realtor Jane Doe switched real estate offices and in doing so has had to update all her personal information on her website and any social media sites that she belongs to to reflect this new real estate office. Since the day that she switched offices all advertisements have been done with the new office name.

This issue is this, the old real estate office has filed a complaint with the real estate board and is potentially going to file a complaint with the Tennessee Real Estate Commission claiming false advertising. The reason for their claims is that Realtor Jane Doe still ranks very well in the search engines for real estate terms combined with the name of the old real estate office. They (old real estate company) are stating that realtor Jane Doe must remove or fix any old links, advertisements, articles, blog posts, Press Releases, etc. that are contributing to her search engine placement when it comes to searches that involve the old real estate office name.

Is Realtor Jane Doe legally bound to have this done, if it is even possible to get done? How is this any different from an old real estate publication from last year that has her picture and contact info with the old real estate office that is sitting on someones magazine rack? do they expect her to track those down too......

[Stevef]

Originally Posted by mateus

This issue is this, the old real estate office has filed a complaint with the real estate board and is potentially going to file a complaint with the Tennessee Real Estate Commission claiming false advertising.

Neither the real estate board, nor the Tennessee Real Estate Commission has the authority to force her to remove advertising. The most either can do is withhold membership.

Unfortunately, withholding membership may preclude her from acting as a real estate agent.

If/when there is a hearing, she should show up with a hard copy of her website showing she has removed all of the information. She should also bring in a whois report for all of the other websites showing that she is not in control of those and has no ability to remove old information from them.

[mateus]

Well that sucks. So essentially we've lost the war because without that membership there is no career.....

Thanks so much for your reply though!

[Stevef]

Originally Posted by mateus

Well that sucks. So essentially we've lost the war because without that membership there is no career.....

Thanks so much for your reply though!

Filing a complaint isn't the same thing as winning. It doesn't seem reasonable that "they" would force her to do something that simply is not possible.

But......

I've seen some pretty inconsistent decisions come out of my local board of Realtors.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by Stevef

Filing a complaint isn't the same thing as winning. It doesn't seem reasonable that "they" would force her to do something that simply is not possible.

But......

I've seen some pretty inconsistent decisions come out of my local board of Realtors.

**A: yes, me too.