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Exclusivity from an SEO agency?
I am currently in talks with an agency in Toronto about an exclusive arrangement. We are signing up for a very expensive package. This is really only useful to us if this company is working against our competitors and not for them. Has anyone else done this? Can i even trust an agency to comply based on their word? Is there even any way i would be able to know that they aren’t working both sides of the pond? The business is a very competitive retail market.
I would love to hear from real SEOs on the matter -
16 Replies
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F. I’m based in Toronto so I’m interested to see how this plays out. Being former agency side we never ended up in that scenario but I do know some firms that specialize in say seo for lawyers so it does happen. I’ve seen one strategy to be that they pick one law firm from different cities. Sorry that doesn’t help but do post what you end up doing.
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SEO here. This is fairly common with boutique agencies here (Australia) however larger agencies don’t tend to care if they have two or more businesses competing for the same rankings.
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It depends on the industry and the agency. Some will offer exclusivity and some will not. Our company has offered exclusivity if the client asks for it and if it is a large enough contract.
As for trust- you can put it in a contract if you’re worried about trust.
Note there would not be an easy outward way to tell if they break their word and work with a competitor, but a contract could deter them
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Get them to put it in writing-but if they’re a full service agency of any substantial size they’re not going to agree to those terms. Money talks-sorry man.
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This would be a non-compete contract of some sort. I’m sure its very common in other areas of business so it shouldn’t be any different with SEO.
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And no, never take anyone on their word in business.
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We usually don’t like to compete with ourselves in any market so we only take on one service type in each DMA. This is really great marketing ploy in my opinion. Makes it seem more valuable when really they probably wouldn’t take on a competitor anyways
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Most of the time is within XX miles, obviously if you are selling beeswax candles at a farmers market you don’t want a competitor there, but who cares if it’s the town over. If your selling nationally then it also doesn’t make sense because there’s more than enough buyers nation wide for many competitors.
I personally have never signed an exclusivity contract with a client, on the flip side it’s never been a conflict of interest either.
In face I have two of the same industry clients in different regions and they love that they get free info on what’s working from me having both of them. It splits their try something new cost in half
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It’s a matter of trust, and businesses tend to take this very seriously in the agency world.
I once saw a coworker fired for drinking coke when pepsi was our client (he had repeated warnings)
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I’ve worked for an agency that claimed to offer exclusivity, but practiced what they’d call ‘chinese walls’ if another good client in the same vertical came along. Basically, make sure neither finds out about the other.
Bigger agencies will get around it by having different teams operating on accounts in similar verticals, so there is no knowledge sharing.
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Two clients is a competition.
Three clients is a practice.We’ve had clients request exclusivity but it comes at a great price, one they weren’t willing to pay. In the end, their end user won’t pick them because we are using the same platforms, tactics, and methods… they’ll pick them because they trust the brand based on the experience we have communicated with them digitally. Different brands have different experiences and resonate with different end users. We put the brands in front of potential customers, it’s up to the customer themselves to decide which is the right one for themselves.
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They most likely are just using this as a method to get you to pay them more.
Most SEO agencies are cookie-cutter and you may not even be the best for you to work with. -
Yes you can trust them if you having an agreement that they will not serve any other company or any of your competitors and at [SEO Company India](https://seoserviceinindia.co.in) we also take this kind of arrangements very seriously and have been into this with some clients from the last 5 years. So, this is a trust based matter and if they are agree to sign an agreement then go for it.
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The fact that you still have this question while also saying “very expensive package” should be all that you need to know.
If they were worth it they would’ve convinced you of that by now. If you could trust them, you wouldn’t have this question. If you wanted to work with them, you wouldn’t have been nervous. You wouldn’t have been nervous if they were worth a super expensive price.
Overall, why not find someone you actually like and trust?
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