Hi everyone,

 

This topic may have been covered to death, if so I apologise. I am wondering what your thoughts are on conflicting SEO clients, i.e. two clients competing in the same industry.

 

My particular example involves two Bed & Breakfasts. We currently do SEO for one, who is a long standing client. However, we have been approached by another company within the region...

 

Now my conscience tells me that I should only really provide SEO for one client. The business side of me says I could support both clients, but split them so that they are aiming for keywords. However in practice this may not be realistic as they are aiming at localised / tourist destination based keywords.

 

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on the issue.

 

Graham

Hi everyone,

 

This topic may have been covered to death, if so I apologise. I am wondering what your thoughts are on conflicting SEO clients, i.e. two clients competing in the same industry.

 

My particular example involves two Bed & Breakfasts. We currently do SEO for one, who is a long standing client. However, we have been approached by another company within the region...

 

Now my conscience tells me that I should only really provide SEO for one client. The business side of me says I could support both clients, but split them so that they are aiming for keywords. However in practice this may not be realistic as they are aiming at localised / tourist destination based keywords.

 

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on the issue.

 

Graham

 

Recently had a similar problem with two fencing companies. My long-standing client (also a good friend) recently signed up to an ongoing rebuild/maintenace/seo package and a few weeks later I had an email from one of his main competitors! He had seen my 'footer-link' on another fencing companies website (in a different area) and wanted a quote.

 

Initially I thought "Great! More work" but then my conscience kicked in, and common sense said there was really no way I could take on this other site without it affecting both clients. Not only are they in the same field of work, but live in the same town, target the same clients and quite often tender for the same major contracts.

 

In my opinion I had a few choices;

1. Take the job and do my best work, risking the search engine ranking of my friends site
   
2. Take the job, half-heartedly build it and get a bad reputation for building crap, non ranking sites
   
3. Outprice myself. Quote a higher than normal price to ensure I didn't get the job, and if I did, I would have enough to outsource it and still make a profit
   
4. Be honest with the client
   

 

Now, I could of outpriced myself as I would much rather have a reputation for being expensive than a reputation for desiging poor sites. However, I am reluctant to outsource a clients work.

 

So, I was just honest with the client. I told him I would love to take the project on, but due to having an on-going contract with one of his main competitors it would be unprofessional of me if I was to take on 2 projects in direct competition.

 

He was fine about it and once I explained things like search engine ranking, keywords and the lack of possibilities in this paticular field he realised I wasn't just being awkward, but protecting my own name/brand.

An interesting problem, not really thought about this before!

So, I was just honest with the client. I told him I would love to take the project on, but due to having an on-going contract with one of his main competitors it would be unprofessional of me if I was to take on 2 projects in direct competition.

 

He was fine about it and once I explained things like search engine ranking, keywords and the lack of possibilities in this paticular field he realised I wasn't just being awkward, but protecting my own name/brand.

 

Thanks, that is the conclusion I have come to as well - frustrating, what with all the different types of businesses in the area we have two clients approach us that are basically identical! That's life I suppose!

 

Cheers

Thanks, that is the conclusion I have come to as well - frustrating, what with all the different types of businesses in the area we have two clients approach us that are basically identical! That's life I suppose!

 

Cheers

 

Find someone else you trust to do a good job and have a reciprocal arrangement: refer your second bod to them; they do the same to you. You can compete with each other's services without a conflict of interest and nobody goes away unhappy.

I have opted to only ever have one client in each vertical.

 

The way I see it is;

 

2 clients competing is a conflict of interests.

3+ clients competing is a specialism.

 

Depends on your business, but you have to be open with both clients from the outset regardless.