Purchasing and supply chain specialist Inside Out Recruitment is warning recruiters to be wary of companies selling search engine optimisation services.

The company paid out £750 to a company to help direct users of search engines to its website.

Director Robert Curley told Recruiter: "The company sold us a solution which would result in us appearing at the top of Google's sponsored links listings if job seekers typed in certain key words and phrases.

"We recognise the importance of having a strong online strategy and decided this would be a good investment."

Curley said that after selecting its key phrases and paying a cheque for £750, his company appeared at the top of search engine Google's lists within five minutes. However, days later it disappeared from the Google results pages.

"Our contact has also disappeared and is no longer returning calls," said Curley. "I have to say this is not our first bad experience of a company offering services in this field, although previously it has not been as costly."

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) told Recruiter that agencies should make sure they get a contract for the services to be provided, including details of the target rating to be achieved and the timescale it should be reached. If this contract is broken the recruiter should seek compensation in the small claims court for breach of contract.

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