I’ve had clients in the past address this concern with me, as well as business partners, when considering a partnership with an SEO agency. The question is usually something like “What will happen when the SEO companies sees how well I’m doing, with the traffic and sales for certain keyword?”
It’s a pretty common worry, especially in relation to online business. Owners of profitable sites and online businesses are protective of the niche they found themselves and are fearful of others discovering their ’secret’. It can be a little nerve-racking to let an SEO agency into your backend.
While the information they generally work with isn’t as classified as nuclear documents, it’s still coveted by the owner. A resourceful person that knows what information to dig up (and how to do it) could garner much of this info just by visiting the site in question and doing some appropriate (inappropriate?) snooping. You still would need to know which site to look at and it can be a bit of a guessing game on whether or not a niche site is doing really well.
Instances where an SEO agency is involved however often means turning over information on back link profiles, current and previous analytics/traffic reports, keyword trees (your growth list as you’ve adapted your keywords) etc. Some are so paranoid that they reach a point where they constantly wonder if hiring an SEO agency could end up being some kind of competitor in disguise – A fake SEO agency simply spying to find a good niche place to start up.
From the standpoint of someone who works in this industry handling online marketing and optimization, the answer to the question and concern is a simple one: I could only hope that the success of a client would lead to increased work for us.
SEO isn’t really a sprint. We hear this all the time – it’s a marathon. It’s in our best interest to see our clients succeed because they stay with us in the long-term. This enables us to reap the rewards of longer contracts with greater profits and the client achieves regular boosts to their optimization. SEO agencies don’t (or shouldn’t…) deal in one-pop SEO punches that bump a company a little in the SERPs. The nature of the business means long term. If your SEO agency is willing to go the mile and build you up, they likely won’t compete with you.
SEO agencies also like to specialize in what they’re good at. It’s fun, they enjoy it. It’s a unique thing to get to do something that you love. They’re good at that one thing – making better websites. SEO agencies and the people within don’t often do well with specific niches and dealing directly with consumers. But when it comes to people that do a great job at that (you) they can help you put together a better website in order to let you do your job.
Whether you open yourself up to trust, or you make your agency sign a non-competing agreement, ultimately you will need to be comfortable sharing the most intimate details with a partnering agency. If you can’t do that, and you’re not capable of optimizing your own content, then your business will likely suffer for it.
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Joerg Weishaupt is a 46 year old entrepreneur, software architect, search engine optimization and social media expert. Joerg has been building a lot of profitable Internet businesses since he put his first website online in 1995. He is also one of the founders and partners of Social Media Science LLC, where he launched a content syndication network called SYNND.
Joerg resides in a small, quiet community about 100 miles outside of Munich, Germany. If you ever seek to find him, look for where the cows gather.
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