I'm an SEO and got into a unique situation, and need to know my rights: I bought domain, hosted, built a site, and did SEO for a start-up and friend, in return for xxx/sell. Lets call the site "www.coffeecups.com." I have a contract that states either party can cancel with a notice and that the start-up has the right to buy back the website from me at fair market value. From my pure SEO (excellent rankings) the company is taking off and the new investors and others are looking to squeeze me out, whether they understand the value of SEO or not, I don't know. I used the profits I got to start my own company which will be a competitor Since "www.coffeecups.com" has steller rankings, I want to tell the start-up to piss off, and forward coffeecups.com to my new domain. Since coffeecups.com has a trade name (not registered) can they take back the domain anytime they want? Will I get in legal hotwater if I forward coffeecups.com to my new domain, being that it is a competitor? Should I give them a notice, and tell them the buying price? What if they don't want to pay? Do I use the coffeecups.com until they pay? The contract states they can buy the site back at fair market value. How I determine value? Buy hours logged? I have several options, in preference: a) give them notice, forward coffeecups.com to my domain for the traffic b) sell the site back a high price c) rip the seo and strength out of the site, let it sit, or be forced to give it back Please help!
I am not a legal expert, but I'd expect any move on your part to redirect the traffic or destroy the site would piss off the investors. If I were they, I'd try to prevent you from doing that, even if I didn't have a strong legal case. That being said, what's legal for you to do depends on the precise wording of the contract you signed. If you want to be sure you are in the legal right, it would be best to have an attorney help you assess your options. I would think that the best move would be to sell them back the site, using a price based on an appraisal by a mutually agreed-upon third party domain appraisal firm.
Thanks. How do I appraise it. My man hours and SEO get them traffic, sales and started their company. Will an appraisal be based off man hours, rankings, amount of sales received so far,??? I mean the domain itself probably isn't worth anything, not a brand name. And if i took their SEO away, they wouldn't rank or have traffic, would have to start from scratch, could take them a year.
There are firms that will do the appraisal (just google professional domain appraisal to see how many). I haven't had it done, but I'm sure there are other DP members out there who have. The trick is to find one that is acceptable by both parties. If there is a fee, you should split it.
So long as you are the actual owner of the site(not the investors or the persons for whom you performed your service), you can redirect it to anywhere you wish. I do adult sites and I had a similar situation, except I do design, no SEO. I designed the site and registered everything in my name(domain, hosting, etc). The company name itself was registered to someone else, however since I owned the domain(which actually pre-dated his registration of the business name), I could do whatever I wanted with it. That was advice from an intellectual property attorney here in New York. To this day, the domain still redirects to a second site I created in that site's shadow because I was ecstatic about the idea. I knew it'd explode and it did. I've offered the company owner, who went with another domain that SUCKS, a deal to buy the domain back for a hefty sum. Can't wait.