Why Website Companies Should Never, Ever Guarantee Specific SEO Results

Was looking at a few competitors’ sites today. Spotted one Atlanta company that guarantees specific SEO results. “First page or free!” Huge claim… They also claim they’ve had a client ranking #2 for a keyterm for five years running. The company even provides a link to the particular Google search for which their client supposedly ranks #2. I clicked it.

The client does not appear at #2. In fact, counting Google Maps links, they’d technically be #12, but they’re not that either.

But at least they’re first page. No? Second? Nope. This company’s client turns up at #34. (To make matters worse, the keyterm is in the client’s URL. If a site can’t rank at least first page for its own URL, something is seriously wrong.)

Clearly, if I was in the market for SEO, I’d be a little alarmed by this failure to deliver. Wouldn’t you?

You might point out that Google’s search results are different for every user, depending on location (though I’m in the same area code as this company) and personal preferences, so maybe the site really does rank #2 for certain users. But that proves my point even further… if it’s not #2 for everyone, don’t state that it is. Maybe it used to be. How should I know? I’m Joe P. Websurfer.

So SEO is just a crapshoot?

Here’s where too many people get caught up… They obsess over SEO as competition, when the end goal is still the same as any other web marketing technique: More visitors (more of the right visitors, to be exact). And there’s a well-documented array of best practices — plus the more creative stuff — that, if implemented, guarantee improvement for any website.

There’s that G word.

Yep. We at ENGINE guarantee that our SEO services will boost your site’s traffic. But we don’t guarantee a specific ranking, ever. Not because we don’t know our stuff… because we’re into honesty.