Seo Synergy and Freshegg
Last week was a funny old week for me, I had 2 meetings with like minded people that believe we some how have some kind synergy. For the last 12 months I had been thinking about Bronco and how we as a company work, and how we are going to move forward. I had spoken with friends from Blogstorm and Distilled about growing pains etc, usually over beer.
On Friday night I had dinner with Adam from Freshegg another SEO company (like Blogstorm and Distilled), in fact they offer exactly what Bronco offer so really they are an SEO competitor, not really a company that we could work with lol, but after a while Adam was right, Seo Synergy doesn’t need to be a good seo working with good content writers or a good seo company working with a good media company etc etc..
By definition : Synergy the working together of two companies to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individualism ( BTW that’s my definition, yours may differ). Why can’t SEO synergy just be 2 companies with the exact same outlook work together for the good of their clients ? We could just share knowledge, we share support, we could even work together on certain project lets face facts some time a fresh set of eyes are a good thing.
So that was last week, this week will be me trying to work out how all the pieces of the jigsaw fits together and if they fit, and how my company’s knowledge base can be shared with Freshegg’s knowledge base, now this might be a future where some seo companies have a very open and honest attitude, share their ideas and knowledge, of course I can’t see this being a Webmasterworld or Digitalpoint.
Anyways, what do you think ? Can two SEO companies work together for the good of their clients or is it scalable, can 10 or 50 companies support each other ?
Dave
Dudibob 1591 days ago
I’m not discrediting the other SEO companies in this post, but looking at it generically, you have to make sure you find a company that will share and help as much as your company is, plus justifying how much help you’ll provide to their clients for costs (or no costs depending on the partnership) is a tricky one.
A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link but that’s just me playing Devils advocate to this.
RogerW 1591 days ago
In certain sectors, alliances are the ONLY way to survive (airlines, telecomms) – why not in SEO?
The difficult thing will be to value each company’s worth, but once that is done you can share the benefits accordingly.
James Poole 1591 days ago
http://www.jamespoole.org.ukYeh i think so, it would help the industry if seo’ers got together sometimes and swap tips etc..
There could be sites that could link up and have a positive effect on both as well as using each others resources wisely.
DaveN 1591 days ago
@James my idea is simple at best,
you check see is anyone in you company has the answer, before you shot off and start searching you drop a quick question into the seo group forum see if a another company has the answer,
secondly you get the I noticed this happening what do you reckon it could section, stuff you don’t want public etc but need a fresh set of eyes.
third I guess could be a staff training and show’s etc
Will Critchlow 1591 days ago
http://www.distilled.co.uk/blog/Nice post Dave. As you know, I share your enthusiasm for the power of bringing together small teams…
I am also becoming more and more a fan of somehow formalising some of the back-channels where so much of the discussion you mention (“have you seen this before?” etc.) happens. I am working at the moment on a new version of the Distilled linkbuilding process for example and I’d love to share / swap tips with other trusted people.
Interested to see where you take this…
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Mikkel deMib Svendsen 1590 days ago
http://www.demib.dkThe biggest problems, in my experince is
1) All the energy and resources it takes to align or merge two operations
2) Alligning the two cultures and values
The profits from working together have to be huge to make up for all it takes to make it work
DaveN 1590 days ago
@mikkel it’s not a merge it’s more a closer relationship more how and in what ways to benefit each other and share ideas .. build up trust and contacts etc..
and at the moment it’s just an idea not even sure how or if it’s even viable, it’s just something that has been brought up so many times now … it just makes sense to me
Anon This Time! 1590 days ago
Trust is paramount — you need to be clear who owns the customer and who is the subcontractor — I’ve been in situations where I have felt “partners” are trying to poach my client/go direct.
Can be a simple agreement, but there should be one.
Sorry to be negative…just had my fingers burnt before.
Utan 1590 days ago
I am still wondering at the end of the day what is the incentive to put the extra 10 minutes helping someone else if they are not paying you? Even if you can use them for help, no relationship will be perfectly mutual.
And that is what it ends up being, a relationship between two companies. You both would be essentially dating… breakups are messy.
DaveN 1590 days ago
@anon think more ideas + resources than customers
DaveN 1590 days ago
@utan I share information all the time, sometime it’s nice to get fresh set of eyes, that you can trust.
dave
james poole 1590 days ago
http://www.freshegg.com@daven
yep the idea is great, we spoke about it briefly today and im exited about the idea.
after all 2 heads are better than 1
Tom 1590 days ago
Totally agree with Dudibob up top!
DaveN 1590 days ago
@tom of course that’s why you need trust
Dave Carruthers 1590 days ago
http://www.oneresult.co.ukI think that partnerships between 2 SEO firms can be good for both parties, there are certain verticals where agencies may have a lack of experience but still want to work with the client. This is the perfect opportunity to partner up as it can be beneficial for both parties.
I think SEO in an industry is already so much further down the line than others in regards to the sharing of information that more Joint Ventures are inevitable.
Pete Y 1590 days ago
http://holisticsearch.co.ukDon’t see any reason why synergies between SEO agencies shouldnt work, after all I would suggest there are many agencies out there that have their own specialisims, whether that be technical, content specific or merely link acquisition.
Harnessing best fit accordingly makes practical sense if nothing else.
kelvin newman 1590 days ago
http://www.sitevisibility.co.uk/blog/I like the idea of a private kind of forum where there’s a gentlemens agreement to keep it fairly private but everyone is commited to helping each other out cause of the benfit they recieve as well.
Elaine 1589 days ago
http://www.allkids.co.ukfrom where I’m standing I thought this was already happening between SEOers, sharing of information and ideas – it seems a logical step to create an invitation only ‘forum’ where you can bounce ideas and ask for feedback without giving confidentail details. Although I would steer clear of formalising any agreement between 2 or more individual companies – the idea’s nice – the reality could prove to be a nightmare
Chris Taylor 1588 days ago
http://tips.essential-seo.comI find this a very interesting topic and one that I think more businesses online are taking advantage of.
One of the main reasons I would cite for this is the general nature of online business given current trends plus the historical setup of offline business.
By this I mean that, given that most businesses online in the SEO field have adopted web 2.0 marketing, they are much easier to interact with if you are a competitor thus building a relationship has less barriers.
Some research on this must have been done to date however I have not really looked into it.
I have been partnering with another SEO co for some years although we both offer separate type of services and don’t really overlap in competition.
I think the main items you would have to look at is…
1. What help can be offered by both parties? As each will have various or better expertise in some fields than others.
2. Help and support will have to be of equal benefit or quantative in some way.
3. Trust will play an important role not just at the start of the relationship but also over time. Although not required as an absolute, some base ground rules would probably be good so everyone knows where they stand in terms of help, support and more importantly competition.
Needless to say such alliances I think can be of great value to two companies in the same market.
Ian M 1588 days ago
I would merge instead – but certainly this could be seen as a trial to see how well a merger would work.
Michel Leconte 1587 days ago
http://www.seosamba.com/@DaveN
Thoughts + resources: I suspect these are preparatory to execution at some level. In this context, I think the cloud is a good place to store thoughts, compound benefits from our shared experiences and resources cycles in order to facilitate execution or monetize on some efficient scale.
Don’t get me wrong, my natural tendency is to take the same road, seek and welcome one-on-one partnerships and synergies out. However, likely thanks to life’s big lottery, odds are you’ll end up stumbling into a combination of wrong partner and wrong time, which will turn them out into huge time wasting initiatives more often than not; obviously, at times, sharing stream of consciousness around a glass of wine or a beer is quite alright too
To come back to the cloud, we’re facing a pretty smart bunch at the search engines, with their hands on an amount of behavioral data never gathered before, and computing resources to analyze and exploit them. This goes well beyond what web analytics companies have in their hands, since Google folks can map the whole process out, soon from booting your PC to payment preferences. SEO has a tremendous chance: it is the only area we’re sure that Google can’t compete without shooting itself in the foot. (It was confirmed with the performix sales away from Doubleclick). However, we’re a loose bunch armed with knives playing catch-up with a formidable army with machine guns. Am I the only one to feel the need for a self-improving SEO best practices algorithm based on real-time large execution sampling? a platform where SEO experts can share & scale through automation, spread updated best practices in a click, and focus on developing their business and innovative strategies for their clients? I hope not or I’ll need a new job soon.
charles palma 1586 days ago
http://www.brandingyp.comIt’s like Clinton and Bush against Obama. Or palin & mccain against Obama. Partnerships will give good and bad benefits. Good results from working relationships. Bad results from backstabbing.