If you were looking for an honest Just Search SEO Review …
.. apologies. If you were looking for an honest and impartial Just Search SEO review, this post has now been disabled due to pressure from Just Search, they clearly don’t want honest and truthful seo reviews. Just Search deemed my experience with them as something they don’t want on the Internet – which would be pretty boring place if everyone agreed and no one had an opinion. All the facts contained within the original post were verifiable and based upon upon actual events of my personal experience with Just Search and the SEO they performed (or are still performing) on a small website inherited by myself, for which I perform additional web development. The findings are also all backed up via industry standard tools such as Seomoz’s Opensite explorer and Google Analytics.
As a result of the review, Just Search decided to email (and Tweet me!) and instructed me to remove my post. After 2 over weeks of me replying to their email, Just Search have not replied to explain exactly why they think the post was inappropriate. Also, Just Search, copying in mutliple people really doesn’t make your email appear anymore “official” or serious. Personally, I’d just like to know out of interest what was specifically wrong with the original post. Some of the reviews posted on your Review Center page are much worse, highly impartial and don;t provide a balanced view at all.
In the past, I’ve blogged about encounters with larger companies, like Just Search SEO. As a result, I have decided that it’s not worth the time or stress to keep the original post alive. It’s a shame that a genuine and honest post is now no longer here, but I’ve experienced first hand how much pressure a large company will put on you to remove content they disagree with – I’m not saying Just Search would ever become as bad as before (that frankly, was bordering on harassment …), but bigger companies seem to work in a very particular manner when dealing with reviews. If you were looking for a Just Search SEO review, I’d advise you do your own research, use Google to search for the company extensively and ask around for honest reviews – which is what was previously here. The Review Centre is an excellent resource for reviews on potential SEO companies, so I’d advise you start there see www.reviewcentre.com.
Unfortunately, nowadays it seems having an opinion about a company on the Internet isn’t allowed if that view isn’t fully commending the said company.
EDIT 06/11/2012: I’ve received several emails over the last few days (interestingly from anonymous Google mail accounts …) asking me to send them the original post. Due to reasons outlined above, I’m not sending copies out to anyone. In all honesty, I don’t have the time or inclination to deal with emails and pressure from Just Search – I’ve seen this type of effect in the past and don’t want to get involved in it again. End of story. Fin
EDIT 14/11/2012: After I replied to Just Search’s email (on the day they emailed myself) they haven’t emailed me back at all – that’s over 2 weeks ago, with no response – pretty disappointing. Nothing to even acknowledge the fact I replied to their email. This goes hand in hand with what lots of people seem to cite on Review Centre about Just Search (use your common sense in deciding which reviews are genuine and fake …). Also, the the pleb who keeps using variations of bill_seo_uk_8544@ gmail accounts – I won’t be releasing the original Just Search SEO Review, it’s not worth the hassle from them. Simply changing the end four digits and emailing me from a different gmail account won’t suddenly make me changing my mind! Nice try though š Also, to clarify – I am not any of the following: an annoyed Just Search employee, a competitor or from any other seo company – I’m a web developer.
EDIT 26/11/2012: not sure if Just Search have decided to pull their Review Center account at http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews173642.html, but that have isn’t working for me at all – the rest of the review center site works fine. Very, very fishy Just Search, although not entirely unexpected.
EDIT 28/11/2012: It seems the review center page of Just Search SEO is now back online after a couple of days downtime, with lots of new comments approved. According to commentors (see below) Just Search have registered a new domain name too, not sure what the purpose of that is though. I’ve also noticed at justsearchseoreviews dot co dot uk is now listed in Google. This is a site with no content at all and is simply there for SEO purposes to influence Google. Yuck.
Also, the Review Center have also contacted me via Twitter as they want to speak to me “about seo reviews” – which is extremely odd to say the least, as this blog post is the only SEO review I’ve ever written and I’m not sure how my opinion, concerns them. But still, I’m quite intrigued as to what they could possibly want to talk about. Must be important as they sent me a direct mention on Twitter, and a later, a few follow up messages, urging me to get in touch. All cloak and dagger stuff.
EDIT 30/11/2012: I’ve spoken to the review center about their message yesterday. It concerns a comment made by someone on this article, see here. It turns out the Review Center suspect Just Search of paying their customers for positive reviews and would like me to provide the contact details of “Stephens Plumb” to them. It doesn’t feel right to simply pass on commentor details to a third party, without consent from that commentor. I’ve decided to email the commentor (“Stephens Plumb”) directly so he can make his own mind up. I don’t feel it’s my decision to make and know I;d be pretty annoyed if it was the other way around. However, kudos to the Review Center for noticing things like this and working to keep their site clean – kinda refreshing in this day and age. So, “Stephens Plumb”, the Review Center would like to have a chat if you wish to follow this up, as I’m going to assume you wouldn;t want me to pass on your private email address.
For whatever reason, there are an increased number of comments on this post. I have zero objections to comments that contain a valid email address or link to the website in question. However, comments that are simply slating a company for no good reason, with no mention of your site or nothing specific to verify your point will not be approved – I’ve just deleted 17 comments for this reason alone! Such comments amount to nothing more than spam and are helping no one. You’re welcome to comment, but please keep things clean and base them upon actual, live websites.
I refuse to believe a comPany as big as just search don’t know about the basics of seo . They are ranked in he to 5 when you search for “seo” for gods sake!!!’nnn
That’s a good point. Just Search obviosuly know what they’re doing as they rank for some insanely competitive terms, I don’t doubt that in the least. All I’m referring to here is my experience of them, which isn’t amazing to be honest – some of the basics missed, some poor quality directory links and buggering up the actual inner workings of the site. In all honestly and in general, I’d say those masses of negative reviews they have do have some truth in them.
At the end of the day, what they’ve done elsewhere or “usually” do doens;t apply here, as they’ve clearly dropped a ball in this instance š
It still doesn’t stop the big boys from just churning through the whole SEO process. Yes, they’re huge and they certainly have done something right, but 1&1 are huge aswell but that doesn’t make them the best at what they do. They provide a service that the average user will be happy with. Go beyond that and they’re struggling.
I’ve never used Just Search, nor have I been in touch with a client that has and I don’t doubt that they know what they’re doing. I just think that, as Rob pointed out, they might be too big or what his client needed.
Good post, and great review of Just Search!
Yep, that’s the point. They clearly know their stuff as they are at the top for some of the most competitive terms in the industry. However, that high ranking means bugger all if you’re not getting results for clients. Again, this is just my own experience of a single customer who decided to use them for SEO, who had endless problems with them.
The whole “being too” big effect applies across all industries. Just look at massive hosts like 1&1, GoDaddy et al – the support simply isn’t there and the majority of their products are oversold.
Have you noticed that Just Search have made a new website – justsearchseoreviews.co.uk to try and rank higher? When I searched for reviews about Just Search this page and the reviewcenter.com pages appeared first and second in Google results. I think it’s quite shady to make a seperate review site to try and outrank genuine sites where people have reviewed them and taken time out. There’s a lot of bad stuff written about Just Search and I’d recommend seo-positive.co.uk instead.
Purely out of interest, is there any reason you have recommened seo-positive.co.uk over justsearch? I’ve personally no idea who seo-positive.co.uk are, but they look equally as big with 20 off employees. I’m not saying all large SEO companies are bad btw, as I’m sure lots of themk do exist š
You should like someone who has lost business to them. Stop being soar and move on.
I’m not soare at all to them and personally don’t offer SEO services at all – I think you’ve missed the point of the article here.
Well, having read with interest this page, I have to hold my hands up and say I fell for it and am now several grand out of pocket with a non functioning website and a headache.
Just search were contracted to do 1 year of SEO work for Ā£6K. Having read thorugh stuff which I didn’t find last year, I wouldn’t have gone with them in a lifetime. BUT, I didn’t see anything bad written about them then.
A year after they started my site is downgraded by google, It got hacked and they didn’t notice, before the hack it had no more visitors than before they started.
Now, I put a stop to the payments after the hack, which left Ā£1200 left to pay and they’re now trying to strong arm the cash out of me. They claim to have removed all the bad links to the site and blame the continuing downgrade on some work I had done before them which was by a company called manual link building.com. In order to remove their links, they want to charge me more money than it cost me to get them to do the stuff in the first place.
All in all, thousands out of pocket, nothing to show for it and not even a working website. This is an industry which needs a regulator for independant complaints and resolution if ever there was one.
Rant over
Thanks for listening, LOL.
Ouch, that’s a lot of money, especially without any ROI. Just out of interest, is funkybedroom.co.uk the site that Just Search have been doing SEO on, or is that a site you;ve setup yourself?
Good to see that Just Search have been hit with some kind of penalty. They are a terrible company, the only way they achieved top 10 rankings for terms like “SEO” was due to building a lot of links. Looks like the penguin update has sorted them out.
They claim it was negative SEO, but really, an attack of that kind isn’t possible without their being a weak link portfolio in place already.
I can’t commen t on that to be honest as that’s a seperate matter in my opinion. Just out of interest, how do you know they’ve been hit?
Judging by the portfolio of links they’ve created for the site in question, they certainly weren;t ideal, especially in today’s climate where Google is rolling out updates like Penguin.
@Author: Do you work for seoconsult.com or one of the other agencies that rank very highly for “seo company” and related terms? I’m just interested *wink, wink* š Can you email me a copy of the original post that Just Search made you delete?
Hi,
I can assure you I don’t work for any of those SEO companies – I’m a web developer, not SEO person. Unsure what all the winking is about and exactly what is being implied here…???
With regards to me emailing you a copy, well I’m going to say no. Ive come across bigger companies before wanting content removed and I think sending you a copy would just make Just Search email me again. I’ve decided it’s simply not worth the agro to keep the post active. If people want Just Search reviews I’d advise them to Google more and contact existing Just Search customers. Personally, as it was all above board and based upon verifiable facts I assumed there wouldn’t be an issue. But still, let’s move on – there are more important things than than keeping a blog post up in my opinion.
I stopped Paying Just Search just a few months before end of contract. I stopped paying them because they got me blacklisted on google and they wouldn’t undo the work they completed on my site.
I know that it was just search that caused the damage because they are the ONLY company to have ever performed any kind of link building to my site.
Just Search are now threatening me with legal action. They have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage and have the cheek to ask me to honour the remainder of the contract.
I am going to counter claim.
I will also be posting the results from the court case on ReviewCentre, and on here with permission from blog owner.
If they can happily bring me down. I will do the same to them.
Documented evidence can be provided that I am a real Just Search Customer. Documented evidence can be provided that just search are utterly useless and are more interested in making money than SEO.
The Just Search Company Business Model:
1. Sign hudreds of small businesses up for 12 month SEO contracts Ā£600 per month.
2. Outsource link building to purchased blog network from India
3. Sit back make money.
Bit of advice when dealing with larger companies – be careful. Before I decided to suspend this very article, that was based upon 100% verifiable actions (seo is an easy area to document using the plthora of tools available) Just Search did email me asking to take down this post. For my own sanity and not wanting to be hounded by a bigger company I took the post down myself.
However, interestingly, I did reply to their email over 2 weeks ago but I haven’t heard anything back from them at all. Nada. Not even a reply acknowledging my actions.
In relation to what you’re saying, my client’s site raised simialr issues with me about the SEO – I just told my client to speak to Just Search, as they are being paid for SEO, not myself š
Honestly, and this doesn’t just relate to Just Search, do your research about a company on the internet!
I have just received today a CCJ demand from Justsearch.
From day one their incompetence was apparent to me, even to the point that I wanted to pull out after 2 months when I discovered that they hadn’t touched my site for the first 5 weeks after taking charge of my account…
even though it hadn’t been touched, I had already paid over a grand deposit, which I was told I wouldn’t get back if I walked.
Reluctantly I caved in and stayed with them as they offered a free months SEO for their poor service… I have since had 2 further months offered for their similar bad service.
Regardless of Pandas and Penguins or any of Google’s other animals of magic, even basics like wrongly named gif tags escapes their inept skills.
Stay away from these guys as they are two bit timeshare salesmen, who threaten genuine web owners. Why else would they try to tie you up on a 12 month contract? Because they know they cannot guarantee you shit and their skills are limited. Call me on 0787 0558187 to contribute to hanging these shits out to dry.
Graham Clarke
Rob…please call me on 0787 0558187
We might need each others help
Graham
My complaints are specifically related to Justsearch. By the way I also used SEO Positive before Justsearch and they were far more professional and certainly less threatening.
SEO is like finding the secret chicken recipe (impossible) but is also about having an honest site that backs up its claims by its services and therefore vocal satisfied customers. “Relevancy being one of many keys”
SEO Companies should also have an ombudsman so that people like myself don’t risk premature death through unnecessary stress.
Graham Clarke R.H.A.D. http://www.hearingaidsattrade.co.uk
After reading all the comments I canāt believe that Just Search are still trading and would be very interested in knowing more about the recent penalty have been hit with, can someone please elaborate for me
These people so incompetent – the turnover of staff in the last year has been quite high – that alone should start bells ringing – Simple things like replying to an email would take 3-6 weeks to reply
My experience with Just Search
No account manager appointed for the first 6 weeks of the so called contract,
Admissions in writing that they were not working to the contractual obligations in return offers of 3 or 4 months free which incidentally are added to the end of the year!!
No monthly reports as promised
Saying SEO work had been carried out on our site – how I really donāt know as they had no access to it and why change the habit and start working on it now!!
Within 3 months our position on Google had plummeted!
A regulator or ombudsman should be appointed to this industry as I recently asked one of the many just searches employees why a body like this had not yet been set up his response was – all the more reason to appoint a regulator as more and more new internet companies are being scammed and bullied by these so called professionals who are hiding behind the fact that a lot of people donāt really know what is involved in SEO they give you bullshit in return for your hard earned cash
To top it all we received a court summons today there is a section asking us if we will be disputing the claim all I can say is
BRING IT ON,
Looking forward to getting out of the office for a day
Without mentioning specific website/client details which I can appreciate you can’t post, is it not possible to post a simple list of exactly what Just Search did wrong? Surely, as this is just a list of technical SEO points, nothing can be complained about. I’d like to know purely out of interest.
Purely out of interest, what are the main terms you’re targetting on that site.
@all other comments: I can see you’re all scared to post your actual web links – adding your email address, but not a web link when commenting š
Scott, that’s just the point. They won’t tell you much about what they do as their sales guys will tell you they don’t work for free which is understandable until you get your “unnatural link warning” that will show up soon enough. I’ve been tossed from account manager to account manager. As someone up there pointed out, when they sold it to me they would go on about how they are number 1 for “seo” in Google. Well they are not anymore. I wonder why. They have cost us many Ā£1000s and their lack of communication will soon improve if you don’t pay believe me. I exchanged emails with someone recently who told me they offered them 100 pounds credit if they wrote them a good review on the net. Good luck Shirley.
Hi
I too have received my court papers and am disputing the claim they have cost me Ā£1,000’s and have the cheek to take me to court for Ā£700
Need some advice i have a summons from justsearch. Sent it off to say i dispute the claim and have now received a Allocation Questionaire.
Just search have damaged my site. I was on page 1 now no where.
They are the only company to have carried out SEO on the site. Mt site has also been penalised by google
Would be interesting to hear from anyone who has been to court.
Will post here after i get my court hearing
Thanks for the update.
I can’t comment on the summonds, but would like to offer my personal point of view on the actual links that have been built for your site.
Without knowing what you’ve paid Just Search for, I’ve just had a quick look at your backlink profile. Anyone is free to do this and without knowing who has performed SEO on your site in the past (E.g. it may not have just been Just Search), you have a lot of poor quality, spammy links. I’m not just picking out bad links here either, anyone is free to go and quickly using something like OSE or backlinkwatch.com to view all links that have been built at some point.
For example, protect-x.com/info/businesselectricity.net is a typical link – basically, it’s the type of backlink someone can generate within seconds. There’s nothing wrong with this, but your link profile contains a lot of these types of links.
Another example backlink you have and what is fairly typical of the type of backlinks you have: domain-pop.com/reports/businesselectricity.net/ – this is site used to “check” the SEO of your site and will generate a webpage that is indexed by Google and gives you a backlink. It takes seconds to do. A further example: findwebstats.com/businesselectricity.net
Then, you have lots of links from some god awful, low quality mass, generic SEO directories that aren;t doing you any favours. Samples: 216.18.231.228/Business/Energy_and_Environment/, dracodirectory.com/energy,and,environment,categ-113,pg-2.htm#.UKveMIbEd8F, web-directory-portal.com/index.php?c=68&p=4 and webtraffiking.com/detail.php?id=3144
Links like this pointless. Firstly they are there purely for SEO, a real humna being i.e. a potential customer, would never end up on a site like that. Secondly, the link is essentially worthless – it’s from a bad neighbourhood and due to the number of links of each page any value the link may have had is water down (if a page links to your site and your site only, it’s worth more than a page that links to your site and 100 other sites on the same page).
I’ve just looked through close to 10 pages of backlinks for your site and can only see directory submissions and other low quality links. I’d advise you speak to whoever has been doing SEO on your site and question this – as you haven;t provided a lot of detail on the history of the site, Just Search aren’t 100% to blame. Not a lot of real link building has actually gone on (real link building as in getting your site mentioned in useful places, not random web directories). Additionally, the majority of the pages where you link physically is, has no pagerank at all. Take french-gite-holidays.co.uk/links_directory.php/index.php as an example where you have a link – is an example of a pointless backlink, mixed with hundreds of other links of the same on a site about holidays. Get rid of li nks like that š Then you have a link from birdfeedersinfo4u.com/linkmachine/resources/resources_recreation_birding_4.html – your business has bugger all to do with bird feeders lol š š
Another example: debt-consolidation-america.org/Links/?newdata=true&cid=197&uid=299&cat_name=Business Services – a link from a site about debt consolidation. I mean seriously, what is point!?!?! š Links from related sites and about similar subjects will be of more benefit to you.
Link building via directories does have it’s place, in moderation. IF you’re going to submit to the lower quality directories choose carefully. Howerver, in general you;d want to get into the niche and moderated directories, where a link will actually be of some real world use to you. For instance, getting listed on dmoz.org is recomended – that’s generally considored as a very high quality web directory and is heavily moderated i.e. you can’t just submit your site and get instant approval.
Google has released a new tool that allows you disavow, or ask Google to ignore certain links. I’d advise you make use of this, as the low quality links are doing you zero favours at the moment. There a great article about this at http://searchengineland.com/google-launches-disavow-links-tool-136826
Interestingly, you do have some past backlinks from affordable-seo.net and in particular affordable-seo.net/manual-directory-link-building-packages.htm – if you’ve 100% never used any otehr company, I;d recommend speaking to Just Search about this. The domainmis registered to a company called E-Web Techs LLC – who, according to Google, are based in America. Very odd.
At the end of the day, link building is one seriously niche area and one of the hardest areas to get right. Getting a quality link is definately a skill and very time consuming. Directory submissions are not, Google knows this and penalises sites that do this frequently.
To finish, here are sokme example of other poor quality links you currently have:
selra.org/Business/Energy-and-Environment/
wldirectory.com/detail/link-132103.html
bpdir.com/Business___Finance/page-278.html?s=A
You also have a historical link from sexywarriors.com/index.php?c=51 – that’s definately a bad site to be associated with – so definately make use of the Google disavow tool for that.
Thanks Rob, I have filed a counter claim for loss of revenue and will keep this site informed as to what ever happens
Graham
One thing I did find out if it helps, is that Justsearch have a 6 month get out on my contract if they don’t make at least half of the chosen search words to page 1.
They didnt make any of mine to page 1.
Graham
Historical rankings is a bit grey area to be honest. Unless you’ve been monitoring your rankings yourself it will be hard to prove that you’ve never ranked for a certain phrase – assuming your at the stage of having to prove such things š
Rob
Thank you for your comments. i have paid Just search over Ā£7,000 they are the only company i have used for SEO on my site. I have asked them to remove all the links but they have done nothing.
Is there any way someone else cam remove all these links. i want every one removed.
Thanks
Dan
Hi Dan,
You shouldn’t really be paying anyone to remove the links. If you;re 100% confident that Just Search built the links, then in my eyes its Just Search who should be removing the said links, as they are just plain damaging. At the end of the day, this isn’t your fault – by definition, you’re paying someone to perform SEO for you.
Also, the disavow links tool is pretty easy to use – see http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-new-tool-to-disavow-links.html – but will require you to go through the links manually and pick out all the bad ones.
If I was you, I’d be asking Just Search to justify the said low quality links to, and altert them to the fact that potentially, their activities have damaged your website. If you login to your Google Webmaster account, you’ll be able to see such warning. If you are being hit by a penalty, you’ll also notice the amount of natural traffic from search engines decline – have a quick look at your web stats – all web hosts have them available freely.
I’d advise you have a read of a great guide from SeoMoz at http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo and in particular, chapter 7 about links. Although, you;re paying thousands of pounds for SEO, reading all of that guide will arm you with some information.
On a purely personal note, and without knowing exactly what other seo services you have has from Just Search, the amount of money you have paid seems quite high – especially when the majority of your links are low quality, free directory submissions. If I had paid that much money for link building I’d be expecting nothing less than some high quality, high relevance contextual links, within niches where my potential customers are. Remeber, whatever jargen people throw at you, a link from a site like birdfeedersinfo4u.com/linkmachine/resources/resources_recreation_birding_4.html will not help you – it’s just common sense! š
If you want to scare yourself and seo more links that have been built for you here are a few online sites you can use to check, that are totally free:
http://www.backlinkwatch.com/
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/
However, the best way would be login to your Google Webmaster account and look at all the links for your site there. Google have a very clear guide on how to do this at http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55281
Rob
If it’s a straightforward case of not paying versus rankings affected then you won’t win because the contract will loaded in their favour and not concerned with changes in Google so a judge will probably just order you to pay (there may well be exceptions )
There are plenty of con people out there that do it legally and plenty have been had by Just Search. They are not going to give up their BMWs just because you’re not happy.
Your best bet, and trust me on this, would be to club together and set up a site give honest accounts of your experiences with Just Search. It’ll seriously affect their business even more, they may even give your money back to take it down…and they simply cannot sue you for it! Completely impossible if it’s an honest account although solicitors will try of course. The guy that kindly runs this page should not be afraid of them.
That’s what I’m doing after I’ve had to change the name of my business.
Hi Rob
Thank you for the post very useful info for me.Will research and use as evidence in court.
Thanks agin for you time and effort replying to my original post.
Kind Regards
Dan
That’s a good point, bigger companies do tend to have their contracts water tight, with little open to interpretation.
I think it’s a little harsh to call them a “con”. I’m sure whatever people have been sold by Just Search has been explained to them in great detail. Some responsibility needs to be shifted onto the customer. I know personally I wouldn’t go and buy a Ā£10,000 car without doing my research and educating myself on the topic.
As I’ve mentioend above, Just Search rank on page 1 for the term “seo” – you have to pretty dam good at SEO to to do this. Someone conning people wouldn’t get close to such a ranking. You have to cut them a little slack there – I mean if I (or anyone for that fact) ranked for such a competitive generic term, it would most certainly form part of the sales patter.
I’m not trying to affect their business in any way at all, just to give an honest account of what happened when I experienced a site they had worked and continue to work on. My original posts did just this and was written in a very diplomatic manner – based upon verifiiable actual events. When I got an email from Just Search asking me to remove thr post I decided to do so – those how know me will know I’ve come across bigger companies before – who have literounded hounded you night and day, at home and work to remove content. I’m not saying Just Search would do that in any way, but my experience with bigger companies like this isn’t great. It’s just not worth the hassle.
It is a shame though, as I thought it was a pretty good case study that highlighted a few things SEO wise. I did plan to extend the case study and add in some graphs and stats from Google Analytics and the clients server stats to demonstare the effect the Google penalty had on their website. As I said in the post above, the client actually called me up about this and of course asked wtf is going on, as I do all the development updates on that site. I promptly told my client to call Just Search and speak to them about it.
Ta
Rob
Woah, have ever had someone use my post as evidence – I’m scared now, still the information stands š
Well if that’s the case I hold no responsibility if anything buggers up for you on that front, the information is there for informational purposes only and is per my post disclaimer (see top link). š š
At the end of the day, with something like SEO, no matter what company you use, it’s good practice to educate yourself a little on the subject.
All the information I posted is available to anyone with a web browser and I’m sure you’ll notice all the links. What I have done so you can see the links easier, is to run a quick backlink report from SeoMoz – again this is a freely av available tool from SeoMoz. See http://www.web-design-talk.co.uk/misc/
Whilst running the report I did notice a further issue you have. The majority of links point at your homepage, with few pointing towards inner pages. Google et al, prefers if you try and mix this up and this will happen naturally. However, as mentioned above, the majority of your links are free directories and report sites that aonly allow the homepage as the link. Have a look at for a more complete list:
The only way I found this site was to find out if anyone else had encountered the “justsearch experience”. Just imagine how many more of us are out.
I would normally have accepted there poor service and written it off, but when they had the nerve to put a summons on me that was the final straw. I will happily do time for my principles, regardless of what any court tells me.
The comment about either a webpage or even a blog that may come up when people more astute than myself take the time to google their name, is a great idea. I once got a TPC car parking ticket and googled to find that they had no powers to successfully sue.
Warning honest people who are either naĆÆve or ignorant to their integrity is the right thing to do. I will happily submit my own experience if someone wants to take the lead. My computer skills are not the best, otherwise I would be only too happy.
I personally have felt robbed, threatened and bullied by Justsearch and as a result, will never trust another smooth talking SEO salesman again. I would rather NOT have a website. I will send this link to Watchdog in a vein hope that they might give these people the advertisement that they deserve.
Graham Clarke ( Director of Hearing Aids at Trade.
I can definately appreciate how you can annoyed when you feel you;ve been wronged. However, I’m not sure how useful this link will be anymore now I’ve decided to remove the full post – as unfortunate as it is.
As said above, however successful a service you have recieved is, if a company have spent the time on your site then technically you can’t say or do a lot, purely because a service has been provided.
I really do feel for you, as SEO is a notoriously grey area, that is definately open to interpretation and is by no means cut and dry.
For instance, if you rank has dropped you;d need to somehow prove that specific links (E.g. those built by your SEO company) have caused this – it sounds easy, but would be pretty hard to prove without doubt.
However, if you;re sure you’ve been hit by the full brown Google penalty, where Google has devalued your site due to bad links, then that is more cut and dry. There are lots of indicators to check this. Have a read of ksl-consulting.co.uk/google_penalty.html. There is also an excellent post on seomoz at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/identifying-link-penalties-in-2012
Hi Rob
Sorry i did not mean using your post, i will use the information thats in the public domain. I will be taking with me a list of all the links they have created and want them removed before i pay them a single penny
Rob, I read these comments with great interest. It seems everyone here has un-earthed what Just Search are actually doing with websites.
In a comment above I mentioned the justsearchseoreviews.co.uk website, I can only assume it was made it in response to this post and the reviewcenter site link. After reading your comment about some of the questionable links they have created for the electrcity website, I decided to take a look at some of the links referring to justsearchseoreviews.co.uk, as this is clearly a website they want to rank highly – it shouldn’t even be in Google in my honest opinion because it it literally just a link to their site, no honest reviews about Just Search.
As for backlinks to this site, it appears to be the same story – lots of directories and links from site that are simply for provide a SEO backlink. If I was asked to comment on this, I’d say a pattern is definately forming here with regards to the types of links this SEO company build. I pity the people who have paid Just Search thousands of pounds for the this “service”, with the hopes of their activities benefitting their business – because that is the crux of the matter what we are discussing here – people’s businesses.
Rob, as you’ve said above, links from directories don’t help websitesm just hinder their SEO.
If you get any hassle from Just Search for this post please contact me (I’ve added my email to this comment), as I’ve had a freidn in the legal profession take a quick look at this post and he can;t see anything wrtong with it.
Reagrds
Thanks for that, but I really haven’t un-earthered anything – you make it sound so sinister and specialised š
For literally any website, anyone can quickly get a full list of all backlinks pointing to a particular website. It really isn’t any special technique I’ve used. I do agree with you though, when you trust a company to perform SEO, their online business really is in the hands of that SEO company and it really does come down to the individual’s business.
Just received an e mail from Review Centre about my post’s. Looks like Just Search don’t like the truth LOL
My reviews will be up again in no times and will be making as many people aware as possible about my experience with just search
Have the review center just notified you that Just Search have objected, or have they told to the comment is against their terms and conditions. As long as the comment is based upon actual events, that can be documented you;re fine. It’s clear you’re an actual customer due to you posting your web address.
Hate stuff like this, some people don;t want you to have an opinion – imagine what a boring place the world would be if everyone agreed with eachother š
Get on review centre and write an honest accurate and balanced view about Just Search. Impossible to get in trouble for that. Don’t take the bait to write them a good review for a few quid off the thousands it may have cost you. If Just Search did well for you before they got sold to new owners then say so but do mention if they destroyed your business by getting you banned from Google like me. I’m launching my site made with other disgruntled customers very soon.
Well at the moment if you go to http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews173642.html you get a blank a page (or is this just me?). Have Just Search decided to remove their Review Centre page due to negative reviews? I’ll have a check tomorrow to see if this is the case.
Hi Rob
They said Just Search are objecting to my post’s
Yes i too am getting a blank page. thought it was just me
Hello,
I was looking for a just search review and stumbled across this website. I’ve read a lot of the comments here and am a little confused. I’m new the search engines so please bare with my lack of knowledge. In layman’s terms, can you explain why lots of links from other websites is bad? Surely, more links from lots of different sites will help me? I viewed at the list of links you posted for the electricity company and there are lots – my site most certainly doesn’t have that many (according to the site you used, my site has 17 links) š
Like others, I’m getting SEO quotes and finding it’s quite expensive. Could you kindly explain why all the links are bad?
Thank you
Janet
Hi,
In short, not all backlinks (links from other websites, to your site) will have a positive effect. Quality backlinks (E.g., those that have a positive benefit to your site) are notoriously hard to gain, but do have the most benefit. This may amount to getting your site mentioned on related sites in your niche. E.g. another sites reviewing a product of service you offer.
This brings me to the next point, link relevance. A backlink from a related site is worth more than a link from an unrelated site. So all those links mentioned in the comments above, from random directory sites are doing little to help the client. If anything, they are having a negative effect, which is amplified due to a recent update by Google that tries to detect spammed links. All those links to directory sites will have taken seconds to get, as whoever built them simply filled in an online web form and entered in the details (in reality, they probably had some sort of browser plugin that auto fills forms for them, that would have quickened the process even more …).
At the end of day Google uses backlinks as “votes”. Votes from dodget or low quality mass sites mean nothing – Google are VERY aware of this, so don;t do it and do hire any SEO company who will do this either. It’s bad and will only damage your business.
“What makes a good backlink” is a hige subject and one I won;t try to explain in full here. Have a read of http://www.searchengineguide.com/ross-dunn/what-exactly-ar.php as a starting point. However, as you;re planning to spend a lot of money on SEO at least arm yourself with some basic knowledge of SEO. Have a read of http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo – that one of the most widely expected. Google also have threir own gudie at http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
There are also lots of SEO forums out there were you can ask questions.
Thanks
They’ve taken it down and they’ve changed their website address if you look! Crafty. It won’t stop anyone writing anything about them elsewhere though.
The Review Centre have reinstated my comments after sending them evidence
Looks like they are trying very hard to hide. This domain was registered on the 9th November 2012 justsearchdigital[DOT]co[DOT]uk
Justsearch just hacked my Webmaster account without my authority. Probably to tell the court that they have been working on my account I have unverified them but how and where do I complain to? I have taken screen shots of the activity
I need to take legal advice now, so does anyone have any suggestions
graham-clarke@hotmail.co.uk
Graham
By the way, my Webmaster account was set up by ME after I terminated Justsearch’s services
Surely what they have done is identity theft.
I have reported what they have done to google security and await a reply. How bloody dare they!!!! I am livid …..all my personal details have been accessed without my knowledge.
Graham
I think you’ll be ok. Simply re verify your webmaster account and all the data should still be there – that’s worked for me in the past. It’s a good bit of “evidence” if you like to have, as it comes directly from Google themselves and not a 3rd party provider (that I guess you could argue isn;t 100% reliable). You should also have web stats from Google Analytics and your web hosting.
New domain registered 9th November 2012 new look website
justsearchdigital[DOT]co[DOT]uk
Thanks Rob
Their story is that there is a well publisised bug that has been hacking Webmaster accounts. Can you enlighten me on this and if it is true. Here is some of their evidence…
http://searchengineland.com/google-webmaster-tools-security-bug-re-opens-access-to-old-accounts-140822
http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/google-webmaster-glitch-100517
Graham
Great review and feedback. Certainly an eye-opener!
I hadn’t heard about the webmaster bug (haven’t been keeping up with SEO news for a good couple of weeks now, am really busy at work …) – looks like it was resolved pretty quickly though.
However, as said, you can simply reverify your site with Google Webmaster and all the data should still be present. If you;re no longer with your SEO company make sure you remove all access you may have provided E.g. old FTP accounts.
I’d personally be more wary about what an unauthorised indivudla/company would have done if they had access to my Google Account – as it contains lots of other services from the same username E.g. places, analytics, advwords, adsense etc.
What has been changed exactly by Just Search? I don’t know the particular ins and out of your case, but if a company no longer provide a service to you, they have no reason to be going into your personal accounts – in my eyes anyway.
Rob
@Dan: that site looks just the same as their main site. The content looks to be pretty much the same as their main site too. Maybe they’re just starting again, who knows? š
Thank you for the post very useful info for me.I think youāll be ok. Simply re verify your webmaster account and all the data should still be there ā thatās worked for me in the past.
Just search changed their domain name because Google dropped the other one, its a tried and tested way of getting over a penalty for a few weeks, that said it often comes back to haunt you so whatever they were doing that undermined your web assets must of caught them out as well, its not the first time though and is why you can find a number of Just search urls.
Are you talking about the newly registered http://www.nominet.org.uk/whois/lookup?query=justsearchdigital.co.uk domain, as opposed to their old one?
Hi All
It was a while ago, Oct 23rd, when i last posted and wish I’d followed it a bit more. Just Search are now threatening me with court action and from what I’ve read here the summons will be arriving soon.
The posts on here really do suggest that there is something very wrong with what they did as part of there SEO work.
A co-ordinated counterclaim would help everyone if it was somehow possible to make known the failures, bad tactics, penalties etc etc they have used.
They have tried to threaten us with debt collectors and they hide well behind their “No Guarantees” statement. They don’t do too well at answering why they claimed we’d had a massive increase in visitors when we’d had none at all.
Good luck everyone who has a court case coming up.
Jason
I called up one of the bosses there and was told he’d left all of a sudden. Guy called Carl Hodgson. Now I’m very confused.
i’ve entered internet marketing for a year. i try to be learn between “white hat seo” and “black hat seo”. right i’ve just understand that both of them should work together to get the best performance. but, i think everyone should pay attention to their “black hat seo”. while google detect it (like you’ve been said) they will decrease your google page rank.
This is an interesting forum.
you might also find this useful.
http://www.futuremindsmedia.com/a-short-guide-to-search-engine-optimisation/
Has anyone been through the courts yet?
We received our court papers this week. First thing I have noticed is the very poor standard of their procedure. I don’t want to go into detail here, but I can say that there a half chance they’ll fall at the first hurdle. I am of course making a counter-claim for all the money we’ve paid them.
It would be valuable for everybody else if anyone who has been to court could talk about the outcomes.
Good luck to anyone who got the court date coming up.
Jason
Hello All
For those who have an impending court appearance.
In June just Search sent out a documnet out explaining changes to the google search algorithms. In this document they explain how they will be moving away form link networks.
Later in the document they acknowledge that they knew link networks were against google guidelines but weren’t being policed, so they did them anyway!!!!!!!
Therefore, I argue, they were knowingly carrying out black hat seo techniques.
Guilty as charged your honour?
I have the document saved so if anybody is interested please mail me on jasonthorpe63@gmail.com
Hi,
I have had some updates from my client recently, who currently have 2 months left on their contarct with Just Search. My client has actually sent over SEO reports from Just Search. I’m personally not overly impressed, especially noting how much I klnow my client has been charged. One interesting item is a list of backlinks Just Search have “built” – which consists of a large spreadsheet – several hundred rows long, detailing all the sites they have gained backlinks from. Literally every link built is from a directory! How does that help ANYONE? MY client has already previously called me asking about link warnings from Google – I assume this is why. Within the list of naff directories are classics like: australia3.com, canada-directory.net, canadawebdir.com, denmarkindex.com, easylink4seo.com, himalyangroup.com, usawebsitesdirectory.com to name but a few. All naff for any website and particularly irrelevant for a website targetting traffic from England.
I’ve also been given access to my client’s Google Analytics account. I had a quick look at the terms people were find my client;s via over the last year. No terms of note, the majority of my clients visitors STILL come from typing in his company name – which is a very long tail term.
Overall, not impressed in the least. I’m not 100% sure specificly the agreement or contract my client has with Just Search, but all I see from the reports Just Search have provided, the Excel Spreadhseet of backlinks and Seomoz tools is plain old directory submissions. Nothing more or less. I’ve done the main SEO for my client by fixing the many CRO issues present on the site – something which I would have expected a big SEO company to have picked upon instantly.
My client also mentioned link outsourcing by Just Search, something I’ll try to bring up the next time my client brings up the subject of SEO. My client brought this topic up themself and said they’d been doing some research upon Just Search.
The conversation ended by my client saying they’ll be leaving Just Search when their contract expires. MY client wants a full SEO meeting with me where he’s going to explain exactly what Just Search did and what my client wants me to do going forward to improve things. It will be an interesting meeting either way. I currently had lots of reports and data the client has provided me with to go through and are doing my client a mini review of their current situation.
Honestly, Just Search should take a step back and appreciate that SEO is not just about link building – CRO is an essential part of SEO. I mean what is the point in SEO’ing a site that isn’t useable. It seems logical to me to sort out the obvious issues on site before trying to attract more traffic. If Just Search HAD looked into this, the client’s site wouldn’t have a 50% PLUS bounce rate for January 2013 alone.
I digress.
However, I will say, no comments without a valid email address and useful comment will be approved. I’ve just trashed another 16 of these. You’ve been warned! š
Ta
Hi I went to Court last week and Just Search DID fall at the first hurdle. They had not sent me a copy of their case. The case has been adjourned
I too have received a court date and have a solicitor and barrister on board.
Seek legal advice guys – It looks like they have used taking people to court in order to scare people…
The fact that they have no old account managers left in the company to defend their case means that they quite simply can’t provide any kind of supporting evidence apart from the fact that we failed to pay our contracts.
We all have valid reasons for not paying the remainder of our contracts – If you asked a builder to build you an extension to your house, but they did not dig the foundations properly, then why should you pay for the roof when the house has fallen down???
Stay strong, build your case and show JustSearch for what they really are.
I am counterclaiming for loss of business, the amount paid in contract and cost to put right. I can provide evidence of all of this.
A year go we took over the SEO for a client from JustSearch, the client really wasn’t happy with their pricing and results.
The SEO was exhibiting a really poor performance, many of their longtail had been impacted in a negative way because of the weak backlink campaign and loads of spam/autofed blog posts … and all this poor ‘work’ (mainly automated) cost the client thousands.
Oh and not to mention over 100 adult orientated links.
Idiots.
As soon as Google started to churn our algo updates, their site got slapped down big time. It’s PR dropped 3 points in little time and it’s taken significant work to clear the JustSearch crap.
That’s our only experience of their work, if it’s all like that then good luck to them.
Well the client who this whole post was based upon has informed me they decided to end their agreement with Just Search as they have not been happy with the performance of their site for a long time The client asked me to quote upon taking over the SEO for which I decided to decline. Unfrotunately, Just Search built up hundreds of low quality directory links that will take me an age to go through and reverse – frankly, I’d be very surprised if these links weren;t automated, as some are absolutely dire. I recommended that the client go and look for an SEO company with lots of testiminonials and results. One of the interesting things the client put on their brief to me was “must be transparent in the seo methods you use and must update me regularly on rankings”. I would assume that is based upon their experience with JustSearch as the client really isn’t look technical at all. I did send him over links to the Google beginners SEO guide and the SeoMoz 101 SEO guide to arm themselves with some basic information before proceeding again. I’d advise anyone thinking about SEO to do the same. If you read nothing about SEO at least read and understand:
The mistake my client made, which they admitted to, was believing all the sales promises made by Just Search. My client said they’d be putting the whole process down to experience and joked, “they have very good sales people, lets just leave it at that”.
/fin
Has anybody been to court yet??? Anybody able to share experiences?
Your readers may be interested in this information http://www.seo3d.org/reviewthis/justsearch/ Sums it all up. The argument about “I don’t believe Just Search don’t know anything about SEO” is covered here. Their new domain has now gone through the floor on Google.
NOTE: whilst this technically an SEO competitor to Just Search posting their own review of Just Search, I’ve decided to let this link remain. It does contain a lot of useful information supporting my post and lots of technical SEO analysis from a professional SEO company. I am in the process of performing a full SEO review of the clients site who decided to use Just Search (who has since left and cancelled their contract with Just Search). Some of the directory submissions (well, the backlinks bar 3 so far) are all low quality. I am in possesion of a PDF that Just Search sent out to all it’s customers after a Google update that buggered up a lot of their client sites – some of this makes frankyl eye watering reading. The client has asked me not to post this document – I will be respecting their wishes. Interestingly, I recieved the same document from a user of this site who was planning to make use of some of the statements in their financial claim against Just Search.
The biggest reason I wouldn’t go near Just Search? Beside the questionable SEO ability, I’m surprised no one has mentioned this free and telling information. Go on Companies House website, click on “Find Company Information” search for “Just Search” and click on “04979497 JUST SEARCH LIMITED”, click on “Order information on this company” and take note of what has happened in 2011. There is a “DISS40 (DISS40(SOAD))” and a “FIRST GAZETTE”. Do you know what this means? It means they tried to wind up the company. I do not know much about why they did this or what it failed but often creditors (the people they owe money to) can stop this. I would not do business with anyone that is on the brink of winding up/failure. They have a mortgage of some sort and it could have been the bank that stopped them. This company is hanging on by the skin of its teeth. If you’re ever chatting about Just Search on any forum do mention this massively important fact. They have been in trouble for a while and could wind up any time and the customers are the last in line when it comes to getting any money back i.e. you probably won’t.
Like many of the other clients who have had a bad experience with Justsearch, my website was also heavily penalised by google and my site’s visibility dropped like a stone. My comments can still be seen above.
After biting the bullet with Justsearch and knowing that I was in need of an SEO company, I decided to give Justsearch another chance.
Thankfully, I can now say that Justsearch have manged to reverse google’s decision and as a result my site is almost back on track in terms of customer inquiries.
I appreciate that my own case doesn’t help those people who are still having problems.
However I thought that it was only right and proper to publicly give Justsearch the credit for their good work, after I had been so vocal when things went wrong.
I do hope that everyone else on this page, who has experienced the same wrath of google’s power manages to sort their problems out soon.
Sincerely
Graham Clarke (Director Hearing Aids At Trade.
Hi Graham,
This would go hand in hand with what my client has informed me. My client says Just Search have called him up several time now to say the person who worked on their site has now been fired and that they have new people. However, in my eyes, this is all too late, as my client website has hundreds of low quality directory links and is already seeing traffic drops each month. If this was my website, I would have lost confidence in a such a company a long time ago – however, that’s just me personally.
I’m glad you have your situation sorted and hope Just Search maintain the level of SEO required to say within the guidlines setout by Google – as it’s key.
However, fair play for reposting and showing the other side of the coin.
Regards
Rob
Hi all, a few of us have got together. Please supply all your evidence to our website and we’ll pressure Just Search. Thank you – Sam
Hi,
I’ve just visited justsearchscam.com. The thing that sticks out most is that you haven’t introduced yourself and explained your reasoning behind creating such a website. Your domain’s whois has been registered through an anonymous whois service and in all honestly, looks a little fishy. Just my opinion of course.
Ta
Rob
Hi Rob, Just Search have managed to ruin severely businesses while apparently trying to do good. Since they are experts at getting websites banned off Google I wouldn’t like to see what they could do to the sponsors of our website. I would never normally publish my name; I actually work in the security industry but my brother is a developer (banking) and was asked to help sort this mess out.
With all due respect Graham Clarke, you should do everything possible to distance yourself from Just Search as you are simply falling for the scam once more. It wasn’t “Google’s wrath” that damaged your business, it was Just Search. It sounds like they haven’t even got you back to where you were before and they never will.
Good websites have nothing to fear but success.
A client provided me with a standard PDF they said Just Search sent all their customers, it was titled “103 Changes in Google for 2012”, dated 05/08/2012. Just Search use simialr wording there from what I can remember. I won’t post the actual document as it would atract too much unecessary attention and this article is getting less popular now. However, the document mainly focuses on “A New Approach to Link Building” and makes for some scary reading.
One point in particular that was quite odd was when they say “This will mean less links but higher relevance and quality.” E.g. the links that help your site and are challenging to get. This is why link building is so hard – getting quality links is time consuming and hard work. Shouldn;t they have been doing this anyway?
I’ll simply post the rather, in my opinion, apt summary of the damming document that Just Search wrote THEMSELVES: “Clearly, in my view, an admission that they knew what they were doing was in contravention of Google guidelines and policy etc.” – that is from the person who provided the document. I read all 11 pages and am shocked that a company as big as Just Search would make such admissions – it’s frankly, scary.
However, to be fair to Just Search they do seem to have been quite up front about all this and have clearly made customers aware there is a problem. A lot of companies wouldn;t have gone to such great lengths to provide such a detailed and honest document.
Just to note Rob, unless I’m mistaken, you had to take your original post down from legal pressure. Just Search Scam will never have the hassle of silly threats. Free speech for all. There are absolutely no false accusations on there but you always worry that injustices occur. Thanks, Sam
It wasn’t legal pressure per se and there was nothing wrong with the post to be honest – just one of those sickly formal emails with several people cc’d in, you;d expect from some customer services executive.
I decided to take it down myself as I couldn’t be fussed with the pressure you inevitably get from large companies like Just Search. Not that I have the time lately, will never get around to it and would need to consult with my client, but my client’s site would make a great case study of what happens when lots of none desirable links are built on a site. WOuld make a really good technical seo case study based upon lots of Google Analytics data that has been collecting throughout the whole process.
Just Search have 2 CCJs against them in the space of just 8 months.
Date Court Amount Status Case Number Date Paid
14/07/2012 BLACKPOOL Ā£4,832 Satisfied 2QT58430 14/09/2012
03/05/2013 NORTHAMPTON CCBC Ā£5,352 Judgement 3QT38720 –
And a Termination of appointment of director just 1 day after sending out two emails to it’s clients about Google changing it’s algorithms and link building forward.
TM01 Termination of appointment of director 24-05-2012
Is this a coincidence?
CCJ and credit risk etc information available via CompanyCheck.co.uk
Anonymous because I too have a court date and I don’t wish to risk a blog comment having a possible negative effect of the outcome of the case.
Good luck for those of us going to court.
Went to court today.
Awarded our full counterclaim amount.
Their claim was dismissed.
Just Search could not even get the court protocol right and sent somebody who was technically unable to represent them.
If they can’t get this right then how much care do they give to their core job?
This is an interesting forum. We were using Just Search and they almost got us wiped of the index and sandboxed from the nasty link building campaign. They were using cheap Indonnesian link farms and totally garbage, unrelated spam site and even links from adult sites coming directly to our site. We really started to suffer and our rankings were plummeting. Thankfully, we managed to disavow ALL of their links and after several months of Just Search ruining our site and stealing our money we are back where we started.
I am looking into legal action. I have a list of the links that they built for us over several months and they’re really damning. I can provide a full list of these to anyone who’s interested in seeing the quality of their work. I can also provide a complete set of invoices so you can see the extortion that took place.
I basically paid thousands of pounds to a company who I believed had our best interest at heart, only to find out the hard way that they’ve been stealing our money and it looks like they’ve been using fiverr.com to build links to our site. Absolutely SHOCKING!
Can anyone advise what is the best course of action against this company? Is there a legal route I should pursue to recover our funds?
Hi, best thing to do is write an honest review on Review Centre giving factual details of what happened. They will pay you to take it down. I was on the phone to Just Search AGAIN just the other day and their UK Manager and head of SEO have just left Just Search.
The latest publicly available information on Companies House is that another Director (Paul Cheetham-Karcz) has been terminated and Nat West have a charge against the company with the ability to place Just Search into administration if they want to.
We stopped paying Just Search in month 10 of a 12 month contract for various reasons including:
Getting the site de-indexed for several of our main keywords.
Blackmailing us to pay for a further 12 month contract in order to get the site re-indexed.
Being bounced from account manager to account manager (5 during 10 months of service)
This left us with the almost impossible journey of attempting to try and fix the damage caused by Just Search, however Just Search were unwilling to provide us with a list of links which they had built to the site.
Because we stopped paying during month 10, Just Search took us to court to claim the remaining 2 months of contract. (Ā£1200).
We successfully defended our case and the Just Search claim was struck out. We also put in a counterclaim for damages. The court awarded us a total of Ā£11,782.19 and Just Search were ordered to make payment in full by 4pm on 4 December 2013.
I received a telephone call from Just Search accountants on 4th December requesting that they pay Ā£6,000 on Monday 9 Dec, and the remaining Ā£6,000 on 6th January. I was not happy with this offer and did not accept it, but he assured me that Ā£6,000 would definitely be in my account by Monday 9th December regardless. (His exact words were “my word is my bond”). It is now Tuesday 10th December and still no money or any contact has been made by Just Search or their accountants (Sedulo). So much for their accountant’s word!!!
Interestingly, Paul Cheetham-Karcz is also the MD of the Accountancy Firm Sedulo – “Sedulo Group Limited”, “Sedulo Wealth Management Limited”, “Sedulo Investments LLP” and “Sedulo Sport & Media Ltd” one of which was the companies who called me to assure me that I would be paid Ā£6,000 by Monday 9th.
Has anybody who has been to court actually been paid by Just Search?
Sam Billing
November 1, 2013 at 9:33 pm
The latest publicly available information on Companies House is that another Director (Paul Cheetham-Karcz) has been terminated and Nat West have a charge against the company with the ability to place Just Search into administration if they want to.
We did get paid after counterclaiming when Just search took us to court for Ā£1200. Our claim was for Ā£4900. A level which put us at a virtually neutral position with regard to cash but also allowed us to keep it within the small claims track.
They were late but paid half about 8 weeks after the court date or 4 weeks late. The next half was promised the week after the first. The UK manager called me to say they would pay the half and when I said it wasn’t good enough and it was already late he said thats what we’re offering! Anyway, the first half was paid, albeit, late. The balance came in about another four weeks later. I was just about to file a third party debt order when I did a final check of our account only to see it had gone in that day.
My gut feeling is that they are living a hand to mouth existence with serious cash flow issues. We were very lucky to get paid and I don’t envy anybody else with a relationship with these guys. I can’t believe how inept they are at going to court and that they keep issuing claims against people. Especially when it is clear now that precedents have been set by the number of succesful claims there have been.
Just Search has been sold http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/deals/manchester-marketing-agency-swooped-buy-6164356