Conflict of Interest When Promoting SEO Services

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ChrisRR

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Hi,

I would like to know how SEO companies handle the conflict of interest question when pitching a potential client and actually working for more than one client within the same industry.

Lets say you already have a client in real estate in your city and another real estate agent wants your services but then asks, how can you work for both of us?

How do legiamte SEO companies handle these kinds of situation as they must come up often?

Thanks
 
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Are they after the same market? The same keywords? I would turn them down if so. It's impossible to offer your best to both clients if they are competing for exactly the same market. One way to spin it, though, would be to get them to target different niches (e.g. one was apartment sales, one house sales), or perhaps long tail locations (town/village instead of city/region). Your loyalty should be with the older client and if you're honest about your company ethics, your business name won't be tarnished.

Tricky decision, good luck!
 
Explain the situation with your new customer, if they intend to be competing for the same keywords its going to be very hard to take on both clients. I would pick the client that is likely to have the better lifetime value, which is presumably your existing client who has already used your services.

There may be situations where you can promote more than one company. Take 'London Cleaning' huge geographic area with a ton of companies competing for first page listings. Also as mentioned there sub-geo areas where you could rank client sites, 'North London Cleaning' and 'South London Cleaning'.
 
BadyBoySEO said:
Explain the situation with your new customer, if they intend to be competing for the same keywords its going to be very hard to take on both clients. I would pick the client that is likely to have the better lifetime value, which is presumably your existing client who has already used your services.

There may be situations where you can promote more than one company. Take 'London Cleaning' huge geographic area with a ton of companies competing for first page listings. Also as mentioned there sub-geo areas where you could rank client sites, 'North London Cleaning' and 'South London Cleaning'.
Click to expand...

Tootaly agree with this. If a new client comes in asking for your service with keywords that you already have for another client than the most reasonable thing to do is to turn them down. Another thing you can do is explain them that because of your TOS you can not include 2 competitors from the same Niche and suggest other similar keywords that you dont work on with the other client. This will get you higher offers on your service ( everyone wants to get rid of their competition ) as well as a reliable trustworthy sense for your service. Also mentioning that you have turned down another competitor to your existing client will be a big + ..
 
A client who is already paying you must have the priority! He has shown his loyalty by choosing you to do his SEO so it's expected of you to show some appreciation too. This means that you cannot work on another client for the exact same keywords/market. Maybe when he asks for those keywords you can refuse him by saying that they are already taken.
 
if the services are very good you will get viral orders . a satisfied member will tell to all their friends
and this market place is very big. if you can see there are a lot of new services with thousands of reviews
I hate WSO's . I prefer to spend some more $ to good services
 
I agree with all the others. Being ethical might contradict with "black hat", but since a lot of the people on this forum are actually legitimate business owners I would explain the situation to the new client. If you take them both without notifying them you might lose them both + the word might spread that you only care about the bucks... which is a terrible thing for any company, but especially a small local one.

Perhaps you can help them by getting attention in other fields, like social media. I would probably decline the job and explain the situation to you old client. The new company will probably hire someone else to do the job, which is a great upsell pitch to your old client, because competition will increase.

Good luck!
 
1. make them fight each other over your services :)
2. sell tickets
3. bank!

but really... why not rank both and just pitch to each of them that the other one is investing a lot more in SEO and that they should also ... if you manage to bounce their positions on a weekly basis (client1 > client 2; client2 > client1;etc) and manage to keep them both on top positions (ideally #1 and #2) you could keep them both on board for a long time and even get away with it ... unless the Scooby Doo Crew gets in on it and outs you ... or W13S0N
 
I was Working for a SEO Company they had not 2 But 3 Clients Paying them to rank for same Keywords
It was very Shitty Situation
 
Well I would say to take on the other clients up to a maximum of 3. That is because the 3 top spots are really the only places they will care about so you will still be providing value. Although it really does depend on your own preferences as you may only want 1 client per niche per area.
 
Well, i think, not only money play the essential role in the decision what client to take.
First of all, if the niche is big enough, the could be place for to clients and different key words,
Secondly, good SEO is not only Ad Words, but also an internal and external link building and site optimization, in general.
 
Like people have mentioned earlier, it's bad business to rank for the same keywords for multiple clients unless they are both aware that is how your business is run and they are those type of clients (which in real estate, they won't be).

Politely refuse, in situations like these it's always nice to have a relationship with other SEO companies who can provide work and you get commission to forwarding a prospect you cannot take either due to Conflict, or they are too cheap for you or their scope is outside of your operations.
 
Apart from the ethics. Its a good business practice to offer exclusivity
for the length of the contract.

This ties you to them, but it also ties them to you.
If you are doing a good job for them, they sure as hell wont want you working for a competitor
 
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