Treating the Client Ethically

In the "SEO: The Importance of an Ethical Approach" | essay we've already covered the main issues and concerns that arise when SEO and ethics are brought together. Those concerns are numerous, but the way we treat our clients is especially important, so let's look at it once again and discuss some hypothetical situations we can possibly encounter while working together, and our ways of handling them.

You approach us and ask us if we can guarantee certain results.

We know from our previous experience that specific results can't be guaranteed. Certain SEO companies would, perhaps, say "OK, we guarantee it! Let's sign our contract ASAP". There is no warrant you will receive the results you expect, but they have achieved what they wanted: you have paid the money, and in many cases it is very unlikely you will receive any refund at the end.

We don't think that is the best way to treat our prospective clients. If we cannot provide a 100% bulletproof guarantee, we will estimate the probabilities and provide you with our honest estimation. Should we guarantee something and do not deliver, we will issue a refund.

You are not satisfied with the quality of our SEO/SEM services and wish to quit.

No problem, we say. You are welcome to do so. You simply stop paying us, and we stop working further on your site or your PPC campaign, unless otherwise specified in our contract signed prior to the start. No automatic monthly charges. No enforced cooperation.

What's more, we are always willing to adjust the payment schedule to what is most convenient to you.

Some SEO companies use cloaking or redirected doorways to drive traffic from their own domains to their clients' sites. Apart from being spammy, these techniques have another bad implication. As soon as payments are stopped, they simply stop redirecting traffic, or send it to their ex-client's competitors. We would never use any such tricks to harm our former clients who decided to cancel the contract. If we need to part, it will be done in a civil and friendly manner.

But before you make your final decision, wouldn't it be better to write to us first and explain the reasons to us? Perhaps we will still be able to find a good solution through negotiation and continue working together?

You need to quit temporarily and renew our contract later.

Again, no problem whatsoever. We understand that life is more complicated than we would like it to be, and SEO cannot always remain the highest priority. As soon as you sort the rest of your priorities out, we will be happy to say "Welcome back!".

You cannot afford to pay us now, but you are our former client and just need some simple SEO advice.

Depending on how busy we are and how time-consuming the task is, it is quite likely we will do this sort of favour for you. For free. We treat our clients as our friends, and are always willing to help our friends for the sake of our former cooperation and good relations.

You send us an email and feel concerned about your privacy.

No need to. Read our Privacy Policy | and rest assured that your e-mail address will never be sold out to any nasty spammer, and your private information will always stay private.

You feel worried about the changes we are applying to your site.

We never apply anything that might spoil the look of your site or put it in danger of being banned by the search engines. Anyway, your concerns and preferences are always taken into account. We always provide you with a full account on what we do to your site(s), and if some of the measures/alterations we suggest meet your strong disapproval, we never insist. The same goals in SEO can be achieved using different methods, so there is always room for tweaking and alternatives until we find the solution that suits both you and us. And our friends, the spiders, as well.

We do a lot to educate our clients and make sure that after our contract is closed you will be able to continue promoting yourself without much help from us and do it the way it should be done, both safely and effectively.

The work is done too slowly, the results don't meet your expectations.

And you come to a conclusion that we don't work hard enough for you. That's where you are wrong.

SEO is not a direct path. The search engines are unpredictable, and to achieve results it is sometimes necessary to make the link building process slow and monitor what happens; planning, thorough analysis and patience in certain cases, work better than over-aggressive campaigns.

You should realise though that it is done only with the purpose of protecting you from unnecessary danger. If on that stage you decide to break our co-operation and go to another SEO who keeps promising you the Moon, you have been warned. In case your new SEO gets you into trouble, and you come to us begging for help, remember that un-banning is a hard procedure, and that penalised sites seldom get completely forgiven by the search engines. So, no guarantees in this case, as well as no discounts.

And, finally...

You come to us and ask us to achieve high SE rankings for your site at all costs.

If you are expecting us to spam the engines on your behalf, you have come to the wrong place. We won't, no matter how much you are ready to pay for every doorway page. Our ethics and principles are just not for sale.

If we discover that you are doing any sort of Internet promotion work for your site that we regard as a spammy SEO technique, we will inform you straight away. At this point, you either agree to take all necessary measures to stop spamming the engines, or our contract will be closed immediately. We have to care about our business reputation. Being "guilty by association" is highly unpleasant, and if you wish to take the responsibility for your actions and for the inevitable downfall they will bring, you take it. Spider Friendly is not going to be involved.

The 8 rules above basically cover our business ethics and the way we treat our actual and prospective clients. We strongly believe that by adhering to these rules, we achieve great results for our clients and do no harm to anyone involved. We know that many people may disagree with our beliefs and principles, but it is our understanding of the right and the wrong. Take it or leave it.