Guaranteed SEO (Part 1) - Why We Don’t Offer An SEO Guarantee

One of the most frequently asked questions of our Online Marketing consultants is “Do you guarantee that I will rank on the first page of Google?” This is an entirely fair question given that the client is about to pay for work on an SEO campaign where they generally don’t have a great understanding of what it takes to rank well, and that there are a range of SEO companies that do offer SEO guarantees of one type or another. 

The purpose of this article is to outline why as a company we have made a deliberate point of not offering any kind of SEO guarantee. In a few week’s time I will post a second article with some feedback on some SEO guarantees. 

Why We Don’t Offer An SEO Guarantee

Google says no
Google itself provides guidelines on how to select an SEO company. In this they warn that “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google”. You can read more on this here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291 

As an SEO Company we don’t want to make an offer that contravenes the guidelines from Google itself on how to select an SEO company. In offering guarantees promising certain organic rankings in Google we feel we would be doing this.  

We Don’t Control Google
Like KFC’s ‘eleven herbs and spices’ the algorithm that Google uses to determine which websites should rank on the first page for a given search term is top-secret. Even more challenging than cracking the KFC formula is that the Google search algorithm changes on a frequent basis (often 100’s of tweaks per year), and that the algorithm itself is comprised of well over 200 factors. 

A good SEO company will have a strong handle on what it believes are the key factors Google considers when ranking a website, and will monitor changes regularly. But at the end of the day no company other than Google controls the algorithm and how it ranks websites. When massive upgrades are made to the algorithm (often every few years) rankings can change dramatically across thousands of keywords virtually overnight. We simply don’t control how, and when, these overhauls take place. When they do, our engineers respond, and work on clients rankings. But we can’t guarantee that a massive Google overhaul won’t impact client rankings in the short-term. 

Same work in regardless of outcome
As a business person you need to consider that a premium SEO provider needs to put the same (sometimes higher) level of resources into a campaign where rankings are taking a little longer to improve when compared to a campaign that obtains high rankings really quickly. In our case we employ highly trained and qualified staff in all areas; SEO engineers, Account Managers, off-site strategists and we have a nice office in central Sydney where clients can visit to discuss their campaigns. The reality is that our staff, rent and other costs need to be paid regardless of rankings. This makes the guarantee of rankings in a search engine which we don’t control simply bad business. 

Judge us by our results
The main reason that we don’t offer an SEO guarantee is that we can show prospective clients fantastic client rankings across thousands of keywords both here in Australia, and worldwide. This is generally enough to convince them that we are the right company for the job. We believe that there is nothing more compelling to show a potential client to illustrate we are the best SEO company than to show great rankings across competitive keywords and to have existing clients willing to talk about the positive impact our SEO had on their business.

Conclusion

The best SEO company for your needs will be one with a proven track-record of delivering first page rankings for their clients in competitive industries. Taking things one step further, they should also have a record of delivering high quality traffic to their client’s websites that results in increased sales leads.  When selecting an SEO company demand to see a list of rankings for at least 20 clients and speak to at least three existing clients to verify their work. Most leading SEO companies are reluctant to offer money-back guarantees because they need to pay their staff for their work and they don’t control Google.