Political SEO and the problem with SEO and Advertising in General

We all know the difficulties in Political SEO.     The short timeframe, the need for 24/7 rapid response from content to ranking in Google for anything plastered on DrudgeReport,  Digg, Reddit or any other political outlet that casts your client in a negative light.    The work is hard,  harder in many cases than traditional work with Business or Enterprise SEO like for fortune 500 firms.    The rapid response aspect is enough to have a politician have the direct cell phone number of the SEO to be at his or her service 24 hours a day close to the election day and especially in a tight race.

There are cases where the SEO becomes not just a part of the team,  he becomes the team in some specific instances.

The problem occurs typically at the end of the election.    It’s often said by Political experts that “you should collect the last month invoice up front,  because in the case your client loses he will blame everyone but himself and not pay the last month’s bill.”   This makes sense to SEO and Advertising Agencies because we have seen many instances of Politicians skipping the last month’s bill.

From a history lesson from our own experience.   Herman Cain was running for President on the Republican Ticket in 2012.     His campaign signed a contract for our services.   However we couldn’t collect for our services at the end.  The campaign closed and our last invoices were not paid.

We could have pushed the issue, however we chalked it up to experience.    The fact is, if the campaign loses.   No matter whom is running (in this case a GOP Presidential Contender with potential at the time of securing the ticket) the chances are your last month bill will not be paid.

This is part of the landmine of working in the Political SEO space.