Question for SEO people

[LouTheDesigner]

Ok,

So I have a client that used me to build his site, which was made in joomla. He then hired a separate SEO expert, unbeknownst to me. Every since then, whenever these SEO experts change something, something goes wrong with the site. It got the point where the client would text me and say "the site is down." I looked at the global configurations of the joomla site and noticed that they tried to turn on search engine friendly URLs (which you should never do). I turned this feature off and the site was back up.

Weird quirks like these happen all the time (like a contact form stopped working).. Now I don't touch the site at all, so I know it has to be one of these SEO "experts." I told the client that he should either just use me for SEO or tell these people to be careful. He then claimed that these people HAVE NO ACCESS TO THE SITE, and that all of the SEO work was done on their side!

Aside from creating backlinks, what could they be doing without access to the site? In my opinion, either the client is lying to convince me that these quirks are all my fault, OR that they may be lying to him.

What do you think?

-Lou

 

[LandisCreations]

Having worked with Joomla almost exclusively for the last year, there's nothing at all that they could do without access to the Joomla admin.

They certainly couldn't turn on SEO URLS without access. (Btw, I do highly recommend turning this on generally, it makes a huge difference for SEO. However, once you do you need to make some changes to the .htaccess file so that the site actually works. I'm fairly sure it tells you the changes that are necessary.)

But yeah, my guess is that he's claiming that they don't have access so that he can continue to "blame" you for what they do so that you fix anything they screw up. That, or he's actually in there and tinkering with things, screwing them up, and blaming them on you.

This is the one downside to using a CMS, but our policy generally was that after finishing a Joomla site for someone we'd provide 1-2 hours of training. After that, we wouldn't touch the site without them requesting that we do work, and if they screwed something up we would either charge them hourly to fix it or set them up on a monthly maintenance plan which would cover this sort of thing.

Best of luck with this one.

~ Nathan

(PS - Used to post here as Sysgen Media while I worked there, /wave to the regulars.)

 

[v2Media]

there's nothing at all that they could do without access to the Joomla admin.

Wrong...

You can do anything you like to joomla without the admin user/pass providing you have access to the database and ftp. Enabling sef without Joomla is as simple as updating sef as enabled in the plugins table.

 

[LandisCreations]

Haha, well, I thought that would be obvious. But I kind of assumed if he's claiming they don't have Joomla admin that he didn't randomly give the SEO people database access.

That said, clients have done way crazier things.

 

[LouTheDesigner]

Just to clarify.. The client claims that the SEO expert has no access to any of the files uploaded via FTP.. He says that all of the SEO work is done on "their end." I think the client is either lying or being ripped off. What do you think?

Thanks for your responses BTW,

-Lou

 

[LandisCreations]

Yes?

You're absolutely right. Either he's lying or being ripped off. Unfortunately, lying is by far the more likely option. If he's not lying, then his "SEO People" either guessed the Joomla admin username / pw or the Database Admin / pw, which I suppose would be something you set up.

I'm assuming you wouldn't set these up as admin: password, so this leads me to believe that the client gave the creds to the "SEO People".

There's nothing that could be one on "their end" that would do something like set SEO URLS for Joomla. That's either something the client did without realizing he was screwing something up or it's something that the "SEO People" did after being given the username / pw.

In either case, if you haven't been in the admin area or database, it's nothing that you did. If you're using a massively out of date version of Joomla, there's a slim chance that he's been hacked, but most likely either the client or the "SEO People" screwed something up and you should be charging them to fix whatever they did.

Best,
Nathan

 

[LouTheDesigner]

Thanks for confirming my original guess. I think that b/c the client is actually a close friend, with whom I agreed to do the site for free, he just wants me to fix the screw-ups for free so that he doesn't have to go to his SEO expert and get billed. I'm going to bring up this issue with him.

I visit Long Island frequently BTW -- I have lots of family there.

-Lou