2 clients, same industry

[the_kraken]

I have two clients, neither are under contract yet, just talking, who are in the same business; lets say for sake of discussion that they both sell lemonade.

What are my liabilities if I build sites for both of them? Bear in mind these are informational sites, neither of them is selling anything online. Do I need to have each client (not just these 2) sign something stating that I do work for a variety of industries and may have already or will in the future do work for someone else in their industry?

Is it impossible to do work for more than 1 client in that industry? I think I have seen people who specialize in sites for a particular type of biz, so I would imagine it should be possible. I just want to prevent any liabilities up front. Thanks for any advice/help.

[opifex]

Let's see .... I have about 30 hotels and 40 restaurants as clients in the same town. WOrks for me! The only questions that have ever been addressed are "if I have a marketing idea that you put on my pages are you going to use it for some one else?" and "can I use the same ideas as that other restaurant?" Communications is the key... along with being trusted as a designer and a webmaster. In my case, they know that I do the work for their competitors and often come to me on recommendation from them so there's absolutely no conflict of interest.

[etechsupport]

Well, its all about how you are going to balance both interest by opening a dialogue with him and building trust among each others.

[Liane]

You didn't mention if you are a webmaster or an optimizer ... or both! Personally, I would never use an optimizer who works for the competition. No way, no how!

There are obvious conflicts of interest there. Using the same webmaster is no problem as far as I can see ... particularly if they aren't selling anything on their sites.

Just be up front with both of them and ask if they have a problem with it. Honesty can't hurt you ... but if they find out at a later date, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes!

[edited by: Liane at 12:50 pm (utc) on Aug. 10, 2006]

[the_kraken]

Sorry, I should have clarified I guess. I am primarily a web designer and developer. I have done SEO stuff for people, but don't generally, and won't be for the clients in question.

Thanks all for the advice.

[opifex]

.... of course if the designer / webmaster has done his job properly in the first place you don't need an "optimizer" ... you need a new webmaster

[Bennie]

Web deveelopment and design I can't see any problem with. Be sure to keep both clients in the 'loop' however.

_____
ok, a little offtopic, but I felt like it ;-)

The most knowledgeable and savvy SEO's that I know have all based a lot of their seo research working with multiple sites in the same niche. This is by far the best way to reverse engineer and spot trends. All sorts of good stuff.....

The added benefit is once a 'critical mass' has been reached and a 'semantic cluster' has formed, all your client rankings will move forward as one coherent network. Done right this will create great options for 'authority' sites you may be able to develop inhouse (especially if no real 'authourities' exist) to enhance client rankings and show Google et al. some new 'associations' between the same broad topics.

I really think the key here is developing a form of 'trust rank', 'local rank' or whatever name you apply to the magic PR juice that comes from a true ontopic 'authority' link.

Obviously due care has to be paid to clients in EXCACTLY the same niche. Here the secret is honesty with your clients, what your doing and how.

If two clients rank along side each other both will attract enquiries. Remembering it's a zero sum game, it make very little difference (unless your developing muliple domains etc for a client).

Also depends upon your scope within your local market and your seo competition. Personally I am happy for any one of the clients we have to go and try out the competition, get no where and come back our way. We have a open door policy and usually returning clients turn into great ones.

My father taught all of these seo techniques and we have been doing similar things in muliple markets with great (so far unmatched) results. All of my fathers work is in the local travel market (au) and mostly revolves around regional authourity sites that generate arguably the most natural search traffic in the niche.

Really the greatest thing I ever learnt is packing out a vertical so everything you do comes back to the promoting the same topic (Did someone say relevant links?). Provided you pick your clients right and make sure not to DILUTE your 'authourity' with irrelevant outbounds etc, and keep some sort of 'semantic mix' everything should reinforce the other parts of the 'pie'.

/end of minor babble, you get the picture I am trying to convey. If not keep pluggin away till you 'get it'.

;-)