This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
SEO Consultants Oversourcing Oversight. Oh yeah, what's up friends? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name's Chris Guillebeau, your host. In this week's Failure Friday, we're going to explore the story of an SEO consultant who learned the hard way, the dangers of outsourcing to unvetted agencies.
This is a fun one, or at least it was a fun one to work on. And the principle of Failure Friday, the reason why we share stories of things that don't go so well, is because we can learn as much from failure as we can from success. You get to hear directly from a side hustler who has struggled to get something off the ground or otherwise hit a roadblock, definitely a roadblock in this situation. And you'll hear the short story of their idea, their assumption, and then what happened when that idea and assumption met reality. Today, the side hustler is David.
He was in charge of an SEO, a search engine optimization campaign for a client, trying to help this client get better search results, improved visibility in Google, et cetera. And well, let's let him tell the story of what happened. Basically, he hired somebody that he shouldn't have, or he neglected to supervise them properly. I'm not sure exactly, but he'll tell us. And there's definitely something to learn from it.
So let's see what we can take from this story. Gonna pass the mic to David. I'll come back at the end with a few words of wrap up. [Music]
Hey, everyone. My name is David, and I run a small SEO consultancy.
Today, I wanna share with you a story about a failure that nearly cost me my business and taught me a valuable lesson about vetting outsourcing partners. Couple of years in, I landed a big client, a multinational corporation looking to improve their search engine rankings. The scope of the project was beyond what my small team could handle, so I decided to outsource some of the work to another agency. In my haste to impress my new client, I failed to properly vet the agency I chose. They promised quick results at a low cost, and I was too eager to see it as anything other than a great deal.
For the first two months, everything seemed to be going well. The client's rankings were improving, and they were happy with the progress. But then, disaster struck. One morning, I woke up to a panicked email from my client. Their website had completely disappeared from Google search results.
I discovered that the outsourced agency had been using black hat SEO tactics to artificially inflate the client's rankings. Google had caught on to these deceptive practices and penalized this client's website. The client was furious and threatened to terminate their contract as well as leave a scathing review of my services. I soon found myself losing other clients as well. As I investigated further, I discovered that the outsourced agency had a history of using black hat tactics.
If I had taken the time to properly research and vet them, I would have seen the red flags. But in my rush to seal the deal and impress my client, I had cut corners. It took months of hard work to undo the damage. I had to work closely with Google to rebuild the client's online presence from scratch and reassure my other clients that I was taking steps to prevent anything similar from happening to them. This painful experience taught me a valuable lesson.
Outsourcing can be a great tool, but it's only as good as the partners you choose. I now thoroughly research any agency or consultant I consider working with looking for case studies reviews and references. I have open conversations about their strategies and make sure they align with white hat best practices. To my fellow consultants and agencies, don't let the lure of a quick win tempt you into making decisions that could jeopardize your integrity and your client's success. Do your due diligence, choose your partners wisely, and always put your client's best interests first.
This failure made me a better consultant and business owner. It reminded me of the importance of integrity, transparency, and due diligence. These are the values I now build my business on, and they've served me well. I hope my story serves as a cautionary tale and a reminder to prioritize quality and integrity over quick wins. It's the only way to build a sustainable and successful business in the ever-changing world of SEO.
[Music]
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. That's the theme of Failure Friday. Something can happen and go wrong, and it's all up to us to respond, to react, to recover. And I believe that we can do that, at least most of the time. In this case, it sounds like, as David said, he became a better consultant through the process just in learning to pay a little bit closer attention to your sub vendors or practices.
And whether that's relevant to you or not, there's always something that we can do, each one of us, to improve. And that's what I try to do every day. So thank you for being part of this community. Thanks to David for sharing the story, sidehustleschool.com. There's some resources, references, an email list.
Send it out every Sunday. This was episode 2,736. I'm so excited to keep making new episodes for you every day. Thanks for tuning in. Short action-packed episode, always completely free.
But that's all for now. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
