Should I warn ex-clients if they are making a mistake?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Dave Elliott: Ummmm should you still have access to their webmaster tools account after the contract ends? I'd check the wording of the contract before contacting them about this or use a more publicly accessible service (opensiteex...... oh you know them) ;
  
  As for your actual question hmmmm difficult, it may well look like you are slagging the new people off and begging for their business back, on the other hand, it is genuinely useful information and could end up saving your former client lots of money.
  
  Tough call, I guess it depends how good your business relationship was. I really wouldn't mention you got it for GWT though! All sorts of data protection/copyright/privacy issues could be thrown up!
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  Jim Munro: If you tell them they probably will misunderstand your intentions, Tim. They are not likely to believe your good advice and who knows how long it will be before they are caught up with?
  
  You could consider sending them a fire alarm box with your business card in it. "Break glass when website tanks".  ;
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  Dave Elliott: Oh that is very good Jim, you should work in marketing :D
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  Yasser Mohamed: just walk away +Tim Capper - this kind of situation never ends well - ; they always shoot the messenger.
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  Federico Sasso: Let them burn their own fingers, they'll be back on you in due time for the cleansing
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  Mark Keenan: Ouch
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  Sergio Aicardi: #penguin slap coming soon
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  Tim Capper: I have thought about it ... and after all things concidered I don't think any way that I tell them will work out.
  
  Guess i'll just have to wait until they give me a call .......... the pissy thing is, I took months setting up that site and it's all going to hell :)
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  Ian Dixon: Some good points made and +Jim Munro ;got a laugh from me for the business card idea.
  I think +Yasser Mohamed ;summed it up well though ie walk away.
  The former client has built themselves a deep pit with 100K of backlinks +Tim Capper ;and that would take a lot of unravelling. Not something I have much like to be doing
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  Alistair Lattimore: It'd be impractical to undo 100k+ links.
  
  When the Google slap lands, it'll be time for them to start over with a nice, fresh new domain from ground zero. Sure hope their site doesn't make any substantial money online or drive significant amounts of their offline business because they are going to be in for a rude shock in the not to distant future.
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  Tim Capper: I know the slap will come, but i took ages on that frikken site ... OH well they will just have to come back and do it all again :)
  
  Penguin rolled out May 13th when do you reckon the next one will be landing.
  
  i figure we should be in for one in about a month ? ..... Only G knows :)
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  Sergio Aicardi: I can't wait for the next one! Algo updates = rank increase :)
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  Jim Munro: Wasn't the last gap nearly 12 months?
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  Tim Capper: Penguin 2.0 was 13th may 2013.
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  Pixelar Diseño Web: I will tell them, at the end you are the good guy, they will return later and you will be able to charge more to fix all the mess.
  If they don't do anything is their problem, you can feel good that you did the right thing...
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  Clint Henderson: +Alistair Lattimore says it true. +Tim Capper Theyll be needing to start from scratch. if you let them know what you think will happen and send them a couple of links to Penguin articles backing it up, they may come back to you when it happens. If they do come back, they'll be a long term client from here on our for sure.
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  W.E. Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 01:12:45 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/should_i_warn_exclients_if_they_are_making_a_mistake
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  Lori Eldridge: I had two clients get hoodwinked into hiring a supposed SEO, instead of asking me to increase ranking, and now a year later their website tanked due to too many junk links and then they hired me to fix their sites/links. It would have cost them a lot less to do it the right way to start with.
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  Michael Baggelin: +Tim Capper, if its a former client that trust you I would tell them and meet them about this issue. It's something they would appreciate as a professional and also question the other company. I had a similar situation where the client actually consulted me on how to do, never gave any results to make links but my SEO was bringing his site to top3 within 6 weeks ;)
  
  Always educate your clients in order to make them understand what you charge for ;) good luck