INSIGHTS•4 MIN READ
Ethics - When It Comes To Former Clients
DABK
Published on October 3, 2012
Published on Wealthy Affiliate — a platform for building real online businesses with modern training and AI.
Once upon a time, I got a guy's site to be #3 for one keyword, 5-11 for several others, he was making sales, we were moving up and he'd had made tons of sales. But the process was slow, according to him. So, without saying anything to me, he want and bought a few thousand backlinks (using a date as anchor text!). Then Penguin came along, and his site moved to page 6 (or worse).
I suggested he get the guy who sold him the backlinks to remove them, then pay me to bring him back up.
He thought I was ridiculous. He'd already paid to have me move him to the top of page 1! Why would he pay again?
I said, Because I have to do the work all over again.
He didn't say anything.
Today (3 months later), Google tells me alerts me to his site url being indexed. I look. Turns out, he's hired someone else to do what I said needed to be done... Their style is different... I went mainly after Chicago + keyword. They're going mainly after Chicago-suburb + keyword. One of the 4 suburbs they're going for is in his domain name, with the keyword next to him. He was ranking #1 for that without seo, just because of that.
Anyway, my wife thinks I should find me another client in the same area, and go for it, I owe him nothing. She's been after me to do this ever since he stopped paying: If he's not paying for those keywords, you're free to use them.
I figured, meh! There are plenty of other business types out there. But, now that he's hired someone to do what he was not willing to pay me, I'm pissed off. First, he didn't even say, Hey, I'm going to hire someone else to do it. B) They're doing what I said needed to be done. C)They've redesigned the site (added rotated images, among other things), changed my sales letters around a bit (weakening them.. They moved the call to action to above the fold though it's not an earned position, it doesn't belong there logically, we've tested it and it flopped in that position (I mean, 0% people called or filled out the form kind of flopping).
While working with him, I found out that he really, really hates one of his competitors (the company that trained him when he started out). Pre-Panda, Penguin, they had the 3-5th positions of every imaginable keyword my guy wanted to rank for. Now, they've disappeared. So, I had the notion of suggesting to them that I SEO their site. Everything else remains the same, I can have them be #1 within 6 weeks for pretty much every keyword.
The SEO company my client's hired to do what I said needed to be done (but he wouldn't pay me to do) has 20 keywords in the footer, nicely aligned. They're that kind of SEO company. The pages that made for him, go like this:
Page Title:
Keyword 1 | Keyword 2 | Keyword 3 | Keyword 4
Without the proper quantity of 'keyword 1', your company could possible be in jeopardy! X Company, a "keyword 2" provides its clients with a wide-variety of "keyword 2" products unlike any other "keyword 3." Contrary to other "keyword 4, misspelled badly", X Company continues to be on the look out for deals. That is because we want to offer you the best discounts of "keyword 1." We noticed that doing this helps our customers always get the best "keyword 1" at the lowest possible price. We have the advantage that we are experts when it comes to "keyword 5" because we happen to be located in Suburb X of City Y. For that reason, we understand better that fear City Y business owners face and we know how to 'root of keyword' against them happening. Our people pride themselves in devoting in directing into your company’s specific desires to helping finding the exceptional "keyword 1" for your peculiar budgeted requirement. Over the past month, Company X has helped a chunk of suburb x businesses find needed "keyword 1." We can help you with Company X.
And it goes on like that, stuffing keywords and synonyms that don't quite make sense.
So, the long of it: should I do it? Should I offer the hated guy my services, then go to my x-client and point out to him that I brought his rival to the top?
I suggested he get the guy who sold him the backlinks to remove them, then pay me to bring him back up.
He thought I was ridiculous. He'd already paid to have me move him to the top of page 1! Why would he pay again?
I said, Because I have to do the work all over again.
He didn't say anything.
Today (3 months later), Google tells me alerts me to his site url being indexed. I look. Turns out, he's hired someone else to do what I said needed to be done... Their style is different... I went mainly after Chicago + keyword. They're going mainly after Chicago-suburb + keyword. One of the 4 suburbs they're going for is in his domain name, with the keyword next to him. He was ranking #1 for that without seo, just because of that.
Anyway, my wife thinks I should find me another client in the same area, and go for it, I owe him nothing. She's been after me to do this ever since he stopped paying: If he's not paying for those keywords, you're free to use them.
I figured, meh! There are plenty of other business types out there. But, now that he's hired someone to do what he was not willing to pay me, I'm pissed off. First, he didn't even say, Hey, I'm going to hire someone else to do it. B) They're doing what I said needed to be done. C)They've redesigned the site (added rotated images, among other things), changed my sales letters around a bit (weakening them.. They moved the call to action to above the fold though it's not an earned position, it doesn't belong there logically, we've tested it and it flopped in that position (I mean, 0% people called or filled out the form kind of flopping).
While working with him, I found out that he really, really hates one of his competitors (the company that trained him when he started out). Pre-Panda, Penguin, they had the 3-5th positions of every imaginable keyword my guy wanted to rank for. Now, they've disappeared. So, I had the notion of suggesting to them that I SEO their site. Everything else remains the same, I can have them be #1 within 6 weeks for pretty much every keyword.
The SEO company my client's hired to do what I said needed to be done (but he wouldn't pay me to do) has 20 keywords in the footer, nicely aligned. They're that kind of SEO company. The pages that made for him, go like this:
Page Title:
Keyword 1 | Keyword 2 | Keyword 3 | Keyword 4
Without the proper quantity of 'keyword 1', your company could possible be in jeopardy! X Company, a "keyword 2" provides its clients with a wide-variety of "keyword 2" products unlike any other "keyword 3." Contrary to other "keyword 4, misspelled badly", X Company continues to be on the look out for deals. That is because we want to offer you the best discounts of "keyword 1." We noticed that doing this helps our customers always get the best "keyword 1" at the lowest possible price. We have the advantage that we are experts when it comes to "keyword 5" because we happen to be located in Suburb X of City Y. For that reason, we understand better that fear City Y business owners face and we know how to 'root of keyword' against them happening. Our people pride themselves in devoting in directing into your company’s specific desires to helping finding the exceptional "keyword 1" for your peculiar budgeted requirement. Over the past month, Company X has helped a chunk of suburb x businesses find needed "keyword 1." We can help you with Company X.
And it goes on like that, stuffing keywords and synonyms that don't quite make sense.
So, the long of it: should I do it? Should I offer the hated guy my services, then go to my x-client and point out to him that I brought his rival to the top?
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