Website and SEO specialist required....

[AMDB9]

Looking to have a website developed for the wifey's business. I googled what she does and clicked on the first 2 of her competitors that popped up in the search results. Clicked on the "this website was developed by" at the bottom in small print....and contacted them to say what I wanted - was transparent and told them where I found their details. Both said they can help with the website development but not SEO as that would be a conflict of interest for their existing client.

Is this the norm within the industry? If I found another web development company to help me and someone else contacts them to do the same can I expect them to say the same thing!?

I was pleasantly surprised with their loyalty to their clients but at the same time a bit surprised as to why they would enter their details on their clients website if they were not scouting for new work?

[insurance_jon]

think about it. they can't be working on the same key words for 2 different companies competing against each other.

I wouldn't use a company that would.....

[V8mate]

Surely there's always *some* way of differentiating between client offerings?

Whether it's location, or approach, or some other USP. I think the developer was too quick to dismiss the OP. Even for generic products like insurance (as Jon replied^), a chat with the client should always be able to derive an 'angle'?

[jonamv8]

We work in this way.

Any legit SEO would

[Pot Bellied Fool]

jonamv8 said:

We work in this way.

Any legit SEO would

Absolutely.

That's how I do it too. If I tried to replicate efforts for two similr businesses then just how could I come up with two different campaigns? As soon as I found something that worked well, I'd want to use it for the other client too and so both would lose effectiveness.

The ONLY time I'll work for two clients in the same sector is if they're very geographically precise - local tradesmen for example - where the focus is very much on Local SEO - a sub-genre in its own right!

[KFC]

AMDB9 said:

I was pleasantly surprised with their loyalty to their clients but at the same time a bit surprised as to why they would enter their details on their clients website if they were not scouting for new work?

Those links are there because they're throwing their own clients under the bus for their own financial gain. So don't worry about them not being willing to work with you, you dodged a bullet there.

Generally, links on external websites = good for the site being linked to (they'll rank higher for seo related phrases)

Generally, links to completely off topic sites with dubious motives / paid incentive to be there = bad for the site doing the linking.

[Snowdrop_]

Drop me a message if you like, this is what we do and I'll see if we can help you.

Regarding the conflict of interest is a true statement and we also operate this.

[AMDB9]

Thanks everyone - had quite a few emails from PH'ers and will be in touch....maybe after a couple of weeks as just about to go away to the States for a cruise

[technodup]

AMDB9 said:

Both said they can help with the website development but not SEO as that would be a conflict of interest for their existing client.

I don't see how they make the distinction tbh. Both web and SEO are aimed at attracting business so would 'conflict' either way.

It's one I've never really understood. Every business has different aims when you drill past 'more clients/hits/conversions/money' so they're not necessarily doing the same thing. And to only take on one client in each sector would be somewhat limiting for the business.

Although my first call would have been to the competitor to find out how happy they were with the SEO guy. Some artistic licence may be required on that call though.

[KFC]

technodup said:

don't see how they make the distinction tbh. Both web and SEO are aimed at attracting business so would 'conflict' either way.

It's one I've never really understood. Every business has different aims when you drill past 'more clients/hits/conversions/money' so they're not necessarily doing the same thing. And to only take on one client in each sector would be somewhat limiting for the business.

Although my first call would have been to the competitor to find out how happy they were with the SEO guy. Some artistic licence may be required on that call though.

It depends what the niche is. If its a flower shop serving Cornwall, then you definitely shouldn't be working for two companies that compete in any way. But if you've done some work on say MoneySuperMarket they have sections for pretty much everything, there would need to be overlap with other clients.