They guarantee, promise and assure you of results:
- “Why us? Guaranteed results. Assured increase in traffic and online visibility.”
- “We will get you 30,000 views on Facebook from your target audience.”
- “We will put you on the first page of [search engine] with 10 other advertisers.”
- “We guarantee results on mutually agreed keywords.”
- “We can guarantee a first page advert on the front page of Google.”
Our customers are receiving hundreds of these messages a year, you can see from this small sample how repetitive the theme gets. All of the quotes on this page are quoted direct from email marketing material or websites from those companies who have been pestering our customers, who in turn have informed us.
Fact:
Google have taken real exception to being exploited by these businesses that use its name with these types of false claims, read here.
Any SEO company making claims of guaranteed results or search rankings should be met with scepticism. Nobody can guarantee results in a search engine because the landscape is constantly changing.
A legitimate SEO company will focus on the opportunity that exists to capture qualified visitors and provide detailed plans on how they will take your website forward to meet that opportunity.
Companies guaranteeing results will potentially use underhanded or ‘black hat’ techniques. This could boost your site initially, but result in it being banned by search engines.
Google guide
The guide contains lots of other useful questions to ask a potential SEO supplier on how they will achieve results for your website.
Google’s comprehensive guide to hiring an SEO company (available here) has this to say on the matter:
No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Submit your content page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
Bottom line:
Nobody can guarantee results in a search engine. The key is finding a sustainable way to drive high quality search referrals to your site through ethical SEO techniques. A reputable SEO company should be able to guide you through this process in a transparent way.
Read more of our SEO mythbuster posts here:
SEO Mythbusters – Setting the record straight
SEO mythbusters – Rank top in Google
SEO mythbusters – Instant Gratification and success
SEO mythbusters – We’ll deliver unbelievable results
SEO Mythbusters – We will get you thousands of links to your site
Five tips on what to do if you’re not satisfied with your website search rankings
