Some SEO Companies Aren’t Protecting Their Own
Are you getting ripped off by your SEO and SEM Provider?
Have you found yourself paying an exorbitant amount for SEO only to find that the company you’ve hired to handle your optimization is working for your competition as well? Has this left you feeling lost in the crowd of your fellow competitors?
If you’ve never considered this, you should. Many SEO and SEM groups will cater to a specific market without regard to their actual clients. From even the most basic perspective, this is counterproductive. If you are trying to get higher in the ranks than your opponent(and they trying to get higher than you), ho wins with you both competing at the same optimization vendor?…
That’s Right! The vendor wins twice! With both of you paying for his services, the effective outcome is for both clients to dole out more money and resources than needed and have a virtual stalemate as a result. Unfortunately, this is one of the main reasons people are left with a bitter taste in their mouths about SEO.
I’m writing this post today in response to a SPAM comment left on our site. It read “why not handle your own SEO before telling others about it?’. I did some further research of the IP and found that it was written by an individual upset with the progress we’ve made with one of his former clients page rank. I can understand that there may be some frustration with a competing group giving better results to his former client, but I don’t think he understands why.
At Naper Design, we have chosen to only handle One Customer, Per Industry, Per Location. We have only one Dentist in Naperville that we impart SEO for, There is only on Interior Designer in the Naperville area that we are employed by. Yes, this does limit our clientele, but the reward is worth it. Not only are we relieved of the burden of apposing clients, our portfolio shows a dedicated practice to a satisfied client.
Like all sales, marketing, and business, everything comes down to a simple questions:
- Will I provide the best quality service to a long term and valued client, or will I grab a mass of clients I don’t care about and give them sub-par results?
When we began Naper Design, it started as a community oriented and group development project. We never knew we were going to make a company out of an organization of people who enjoy working with others. Now that we find ourselves competing with organizations in a higher level, we may decide to perch at the level we have obtained. While that limits our ability at growth, we don’t have to become the scoundrels that pit client against client for a financial windfall.
We cannot emphasize enough the need to ensure that your SEO group have your best interest at heart. If you find that you are only paying to the same group as your competition, one of you might wish to move to a different vendor. Otherwise, both of you are likely to lose.
Now that this rambling is complete, I’m quite anxious to see the angered SPAM from my own competitors. I may actually let their post through this time.
Comments (6)
Awesome topic. We got suckered by a group in Naperville that was doing work for our “FIVE” competitors. They never had the decency to tell a one of us. All they would do is shift focus every other month from one business to the next, then charge us all more money claiming that we needed to compete more. This is one of the reason people in your business are not trusted.
I’m glad to see someone involved with SEO is brave enough to point it out. Aren’t you worried about others butchering you for bringing up this topic?
Same thing happened to us in downtown. I won’t say the name of the business, but they are the largest SEO and SEM marketing group in Chicago. They basically stole from my company and a few of our competitors for two years. We all saw the results popping up and down, so never thought that anything more than rivaled competition was taking place.
My suggestion to you both is to ensure that whatever group you have conduct your internet marketing and SEO sign a “Local, Non-Compete Clause”.
I emphasize Local because it’s unrealistic to ask them to not work with a similar company that’s outside of your sales turf/region.
As for the question Jennifer:
If others get mad at me for this one, it’s on them. I can’t stand seeing people get cheated out of a positive outcome. Some see SEO as a get-rich-quick scheme or a water-shed of money. I like the challenge. We don’t charge the exorbitant prices, we don’t take on the ammount of customers, and we don’t have competing customers as some companies do, because we want to be as effective as possible. If we are the most effective for our customers we hold, we’re going to have a strong portfolio, our bills paid, and most importantly, we get the pride of knowing we did it better than Our Competitors
Very nice post. I was previously working for a big SEO company in Australia and decided to go off on my own because of this very reason. Companies were just numbers and money makers. I was looking after 5 limousine companies all going for the exact same key phrases – it is good to look at now saying I own 5/10 spots for the major limousine terms, but it doesn’t really help the clients if 4 other companies are higher than they are and they are never going to get higher than them because once we owned a category like that no more work was involved. I have taken 1 of those guys with me when I moved and have made it a mission to get ontop of the other guys because I know how much they will hate it when my client passes all 4 of theirs.
Good stuff for speaking out dude.
Thank you rankONE.
It doesn’t get said often enough. A lot of our fellow “SEO Experts” allow for to much deception of their clients to make more money off of them. Like you said, they begin to perceive them as numbers instead of valued clients. The really messed up part is that there’s plenty of money to go around with just being true and faithful to your valued clients. They’ll appreciate the rewards, and your company name will have a prosperous portfolio and a legacy of integrity.
I do realize that I’m speaking SEO heresy here, but why not. Clients deserve to be armed with the truth and we have a responsibility to give it to them one by one.
Christian, Good topic. On the whole this was a well thought out and highly relevant piece. I have some more specific comments but they are sort of off topic and ask that you email me for a more thorough reply. It is a pressing issue you present. One of my first ever jobs was making bagels in a small family owned bakery at the end of a strip mall. The business went under because the new owner of the strip mall refused to honor the no competition clause from the previous landlord and allowed a Dunkin Donuts to open at the other end of the strip mall. What you present is the digital version of the same greedy and irresponsible behavior.