SEO, and non-competes, and ethics! Oh My!

by Steve Gerencser

Anthony Muhaluk over at CC Tech brought up and interesting dilemma over at the SEO forum at WebWorkshop. It seems that his company was successful in helping a website rank rather well in local and state searches relating to the target market. So well that another company in the same industry has contacted him about doing exactly the same thing for them. Which begs the question, is it “ethical” to accept more than one client for a given set of keyphrases?

The client side:

No one wants to see their competitors gain an equal footing with them. So having your Internet Marketing company help your nearest competitor may not be very high on your list of things you would like to hear about. After all, your marketing company’s goal is to help you rank just as high as your website can, and how can they do that if they are helping someone else to the same thing?

The marketing side:

As marketers we spend a lot of time and resources developing contacts, relationships, and knowledge about very specific markets. To the point where it is not uncommon to see companies specialize in very specific niches. This goes for web developers, advertising companies, architects and auto mechanics. Specializing breeds excellence in a very narrow category. Having more than one client in a specific industry can be seen as a very good thing.

The non-compete:

Non-competes are generally thought of when dealing with an employer / employee relationship. But can also apply in a contractor situation. Basically it is a clause in a contract, you do work with contracts don’t you?, that defines who the contractor can work with and in what areas they can work when their actions may compete with the primary client.

What to do?

You can either take additional work in the same field or not. But how do you decide which is the right option for you? When we were doing software development we actually had a tiered pricing structure that I think may be appropriate in this situation.

Our clients had three options:

1. Open development. The clients paid a set fee and the work belonged to us and they simply licensed the end product.
2. Non-compete. The client paid a higher fee and we developed the software for them and did not sell it to other potential clients.
3. Total ownership. The client owned the software, the source code, and were allowed to do anything at all that they wanted to do with the finished product. And, of course, this was the most expensive option and rarely used.

There is no reason that an SEO company can’t build on this same model. Especially one focusing on local search. Offer your potential client the option, up front, to lock you in as their SEO and internet marketing company to the exclusion of all others, for a fair price. This protects them from having to contend with a new company coming in and climbing the rankings right behind them and it allows the marketing company the opportunity to receive a higher billable rate in compensation for reducing it’s potential client base.

Be pro-active on this subject. Approach your clients and let them know that they have the opportunity to lock you in and guarantee that your specialized services will be dedicated solely to them. And for the businesses out there, if you are concerned about your marketing company helping someone else in your market, call them, see what you can do to tie them to your company exclusively.

Non-competes aren’t for everyone, but you need to decide what your response will be before you are placed in the position of having to decide whether or not to turn down offers of new work.