One common concern I often hear at conferences or lectures—and that sometimes comes up from those requesting a quote—is that after a year or two of working with an SEO agency and gaining a lot of traffic and sales, there’s a lock-in effect. If you want to keep the traffic coming to your site, you feel you can’t cancel the contract.
I would say this is one of the most frequent objections to buying SEO that I hear today. Many people are afraid of being locked into their SEO agency. In my view, this fear is completely unfounded. As long as you’re not dealing with very long contract terms (some agencies have those, while we are among those who have just a one-month notice period, which we think is more reasonable), the fear of being locked in is actually just strange. Let’s look at the reason behind this feeling of lock-in.
Imagine you’re talking with your SEO agency two years after you started working together. What could be the reason you feel locked in and unable to terminate the contract? The only reasonable explanation is that it’s a profitable collaboration. You’re making so much money that ending the partnership isn’t worth it for you.
Compare to other marketing or sales channels
From my experience, marketing and sales managers search far and wide for channels that work. If you noticed that advertising in industry magazines generated tons of customers, or that Teletext (Text-TV) was the secret weapon for your business, wouldn’t you be happy? Would you be upset that you have to keep buying ads that clearly increase your sales?
Sure, in most cases you will lose traffic if you stop working with your SEO agency, but the question is the wrong one. What you’re really asking for is the ability to stop taking medicine that works—or rather, you’re afraid it will work, so you don’t want to start taking it in the first place.
Magnus Bråth
Consultant & Adviser
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.