By Lydia Barley
- We’ll get you to rank 1 in one month
- We’ll get you to page 1 in two months
- We can guarantee you will be on page 1 for these 20 keywords
- We can guarantee you will rank #1 for ‘keyword’
- We can promise SEO rankings because we are the best agency in the market
- We can provide an SEO guarantee as we are better than other agencies in the market
- We are so confident in our work that we can provide a rank 1 guarantee
No matter how the phrase is coined together, it’s a lie. There are SEO agencies after SEO agencies after SEO agencies who throw around the ‘SEO guarantee’ simply to catch your attention and drag you in. They spin a web of SEO lies. And most of the time. It works. But if you’ve ever been in a situation where an SEO consultant has ever uttered any of the above phrases or any other promises about ranking guarantees, you’re most likely not dealing with a reputable SEO company.
If you have a significant amount of SEO knowledge and know the nature of rankings, you’re likely thinking, ‘how could someone fall for the SEO guarantee’. But think about it, someone with little SEO knowledge is sat down in a consultation. One SEO company says ‘We cannot guarantee your SEO results and cannot put an exact time frame on when you will receive results’. The other SEO company says ‘We can guarantee your SEO results and we can make you page 1 within a month’. It’s easy to see why people fall for the ‘SEO guarantee trap’. They’re ready to start SEO and get results for their business and they want them FAST. Hence why they go for the company with the guarantee. Chances are, the guarantee will fall through and they’ll be contacting the other agency within a few months.
So, you may be wondering, why can’t SEO agencies guarantee their results? Well, keep reading and we’ll explain the three main reasons why these guarantees never work.
1. No one knows the search engine ranking algorithm
There are over 200 factors that influence your ranking for a specific search term and not one person knows all 200 of those factors. Google does not share its full search engine ranking algorithm, it simply guides SEO companies in some of the factors that do influence rankings.
2. SEO agencies can’t control your competitors
In an ideal world, you’re the only business working on your SEO ranking. But think about it. Your agency is working around the clock to drive results for your website. Who’s to say that your competitor hasn’t hired an agency to do the same? Chances are they have. And just as you’re progressing, your competitors are too. Your competitor might also have a larger budget and they are paying for more SEO hours. So yes, while you are progressing, your competitor is progressing at a faster rate due to that bigger budget.
3. Rankings fluctuate significantly
Rankings are inherently unstable, varying between people and locations. For example, should one person in the heart of the Perth CBD search ‘salad bar’, then that person makes the same ‘salad bar’ query on another day when they are far north in Alkimos, they are likely to see a completely different set of results. Not only this but with the focus on personalisation, the user will see different results to what their friend would based on their past queries.
By now you should have enough knowledge to prevent you from falling for the ‘SEO guarantee’. But don’t just take it from us, Google also warns against companies that offer guarantees. Google’s ‘Do you need an SEO?’ support page directly says that ‘No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google’.
Now that you know the three reasons why SEO guarantees never work, and you know that Google does not support SEO guarantees, you’re unlikely to fall for one. Next time you see an ‘SEO guarantee’ you’ll simply snicker and keep on scrolling…
