Hired in · indemnity · care, custody and control

Liability insurance for a self-employed SEO specialist

As a self-employed SEO specialist you often work for weeks inside a client's or an agency's team. That changes not only your daily rhythm, but also the question of who is liable when something goes wrong.

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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een zelfstandige SEO-specialist.

The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.

Work out for yourself what it would cost.

We compare the offerings of several insurers
An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
We arrange the switch, including cancellation

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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.

In brief

For the AVB only one question counts: did you cause injury or property damage to someone else? On secondment in an office that happens sooner than you think — a server cabinet you run into with a mobile desk, a glass of water over a switch in the riser cupboard, a door you pull off its hinges. How the cover is built up is described on hub page on public and employers' liability.

Your professional risk lies elsewhere. A canonical tag pointing to the wrong variant, a robots. txt that after a release blocks the whole test environment or in fact opens it up, structured data that leads to a manual action: the result is lost visibility and turnover. That type of loss is excluded on the AVB as pure financial loss and belongs on professional indemnity insurance.

Also look closely at your contract terms. Agencies and hiring desks work with indemnities, penalty clauses and sometimes a compulsory minimum sum insured. Liability arising solely from such a clause and not from the law is excluded on virtually every AVB. Make your contracts and your policy fit together before you sign.

This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).

Points to note
Frequently asked questions
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What to look out for

Four points that make the difference when you are hired in as a self-employed professional.

A contractual indemnity is not insured liability

If you sign an agreement indemnifying the client against all loss, you take on more than the law imposes on you. The AVB covers only liability in law; what you accept on top of that by contract remains at your expense. Negotiate about a liability cap rather than about a higher policy limit.

The client's work equipment

On secondment you are usually given a laptop with VPN access to take home. For as long as that item is in your in your care, the standard AVB gives no cover for damage to it. Record who carries the risk of loss, theft or a fall, or ask for a care, custody and control clause.

Are you a subordinate or independent?

If you work entirely under the client's direction, the client can itself be liable for your mistakes under Article 6:170 of the Dutch Civil Code. If you are an independent contractor engaged, Article 6:171 DCC applies and the client can seek recovery from you. That classification determines who takes the first hit in a claim; record the actual way of working in the assignment confirmation.

Your own absence is a different risk

The AVB is about other people's losses, never about your own income. If you are off work for a long time, invoicing stops. For that, look at disability insurance and assess it separately from your liability cover.

What does your premium depend on?

Annual turnover: the usual basis for a self-employed professional
Nature of the assignments: technical work weighs more heavily than content advice
Secondment or remote assignment: being on site increases the property damage risk
Requested sum insured: hiring agencies often set a minimum here
Excess per claim: a higher excess brings the premium down
Area of cover: assignments outside the Netherlands call for an adjustment

Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.

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What is covered

Situation	AVB	BAV
You run your desk chair over a network cable and pull the switch off the hot desk	Yes	No
You put your bag on a glass side table at the client and it breaks	Yes	No
After your restructure, hundreds of pages point to a deleted category and organic traffic halves	No	Yes
Your hreflang implementation sends German visitors to the Dutch checkout	No	Yes
Your laptop with all the client documentation is stolen from the train	No	No
You are off work for three months with burnout and cannot take on assignments	No	No

On the left is what you knock over, on the right what you miscalculate. Your own belongings and your own absence are in neither.

Frequently asked questions

This is what people ask us most.

My client requires liability insurance. Is an AVB enough?

Usually not. An AVB covers injury and property damage, while the risk in SEO work lies in financial detriment. Ask which type of loss the client means. In many cases a combination of public and employers' liability and professional indemnity is needed to meet the contract requirement.

Am I insured if I work for an agency at their end client?

That depends on the description of your insured capacity on the policy schedule. If you regularly work at agencies' end clients, have that included in the application. Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code calls for a complete picture and Article 7:930 DCC determines what happens if the insurer would have decided differently had it known the facts.

What if I accidentally take a production environment offline?

Downtime and loss of turnover are pure financial loss and therefore excluded on the AVB. If data has actually been lost, cyber insurance also plays a part. Inform your broker at once; Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code calls for timely notification and delay can put the payment under pressure.

Does the AVB cover damage I cause deliberately?

No. Under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code, damage the insured caused wilfully or recklessly remains uninsured. That can also arise if you carry on using a method you know will lead to a penalty. Insurers test this expressly in larger claims, so record when you warned a client.

Liability insurance for a self-employed SEO specialist

In brief

What to look out for

A contractual indemnity is not insured liability

The client's work equipment

Are you a subordinate or independent?

Your own absence is a different risk

What does your premium depend on?

Frequently asked questions

Read more

Within Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering

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Liability insurance for a self-employed SEO specialist

In brief

What to look out for

A contractual indemnity is not insured liability

The client's work equipment

Are you a subordinate or independent?

Your own absence is a different risk

What does your premium depend on?

Frequently asked questions

Read more

Within Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering

Similar pages

Service

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