We understand just how tricky choosing the right SEO firm can be. Unless you are fortunate enough to receive a personal recommendation from someone you trust, taking a leap of faith with any company offering SEO services ranging anywhere from £100s to £1000s per month, is likely to be a nerve-racking experience at the best of times.

Even if you opt for a company which ranks well on Google themselves, how do you know that they will be able to repeat this with your business? How can you be sure that Be Wary of SEO Companies ‘Guaranteeing’ Resultsthey are doing the work that they promised and are not just ripping you off? Perhaps you have had a bad experience in the past and this now causes added anxiety as you begin go through the hiring process again.

As a company that prides itself on our reputation, we would love to be able to guarantee SEO results for our clients. We believe that our clients deserve a guarantee and it would certainly make marketing a little easier! However, we know that these guarantees are simply not possible and we therefore do not offer them.

Looking For Assurance

It is only natural for people to look for some type of assurance before signing up with any company offering products or services. However, because all SEO companies are aware of the general nervousness of many new clients (especially those who are facing a step into the unknown in regards to SEO), in an effort to separate themselves from the pack, some SEO ‘experts’ take it upon themselves to offer a range of services that GUARANTEE results.

Hands up if you have received spam e-mails from companies doing just this? We know that we have!

Surely there is nothing wrong with this though. The Post Office guarantee delivery dates on some of their post, your local garage may guarantee that you will get your car back in a full working order by a particular date, so what is wrong with an SEO company guaranteeing to get you exceptional rankings? The problem lies here – there are no SEO companies that work for Google and therefore they have no way of controlling their algorithm and therefore ‘guaranteeing results’.

Why Can’t SEO Guarantees Be Trusted?

A recent article on the Forbes website titled ‘Why the best SEO firms don’t offer guaranteed results’ took a detailed look into why it is not possible to give any of the promises any credibility at all.

The research highlighted 5 reasons which stood out-

  • No. 1 – SEO & Guarantees Have an Abominable History – It is a proven fact that many scams offer guarantees. It therefore stands to reason that you should always be on your guard with any company offering a guaranteed service.
  • No. 2 – Search Engine Rankings are Inherently Unstable – Rankings for a particular keyword frequently vary from one moment to another, from one computer to another and from one location to another. Therefore guaranteeing results is not really possible.
  • No. 3 – Rankings are a Poor Metric for Overall Performance – There are a number of factors which decide the success of an SEO campaign. We will explore this is in a later blog.
  • No . 4 – Guaranteeing Something Which Cannot Be Controlled is Impossible – Whereas some market sectors, such as those mentioned above work in a field in which they can guarantee results, the sheer number of factors and variables involved in SEO ensures that guarantees are impossible.
  • No. 5 – Last and most importantly, Google specifically warns against this practice! – Google’s official statement reads: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google”

The Risks of Trusting a Guarantee

The only way that an SEO company will have any chance of guaranteeing results is by guaranteeing that Google’s algorithm will continue to react in a particular way. If however, Google engineers cannot guarantee that the algorithm will act a particular way in the future (there have been a number of instances where Google representatives have said they saw no issue with a certain tactic only to red flag it later), how can anyone else possibly be in a position to offer this guarantee?

Despite all of the evidence suggesting that the sensible option is to look elsewhere, some people are still prepared to put their trust in someone offering a guarantee of results, particularly if the services available are relatively cheap. After all if you try these for a few months and they don’t work, what have you actually lost? Unfortunately, the truth is that you may have lost a great deal.

Companies that cut corners in an effort to achieve fast results which may initially seem to fulfil the ‘guarantee’ criteria are putting your website at risk.

When someone chooses a low quality SEO firm there are a variety of bad things that may be lurking around the corner, including but not limited to:

  • Losing your investment
  • Losing your time
  • Losing your rankings
  • Possibly even earning a penalty from Google which will take a significant amount of time and money to resolve

How To Hire The Right SEO Firm

When shopping for SEO services, it is absolutely essential that you do your homework. Whilst personal recommendations from people who have good experiences with a particular company will go a long way in the decision making process, the following article highlights some great questions to factor into your decision making process – http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2013/09/23/4-tips-for-hiring-the-right-seo-firm/

Taking the time to explore case studies, speaking to references, and perhaps most importantly of all – gaining a little SEO knowledge of your own, you can take significant steps towards making the best decision for your business.

What Makes Us Different?

Despite veering well away from guaranteeing SEO results, we do not shy away from making our clients a guarantee and this is one that we can and will deliver on month after month.

We guarantee that you will receive a service that delivers to the best of our knowledge, to the best of our ability and most importantly of all, will retain the best interests of your business at heart at all times.

Whilst due to the very nature of SEO, some of the work will be done ‘behind the scenes’ of your website, we work tirelessly to ensure that at the end of each month, much of the work that we do provides tangible results (blogs and citations for example) to ensure that you feel comfortable in the knowledge that you have something to show for your money.

We pride ourselves on being viewed by our clients as an open-book and as such, if you have any questions regarding any of our services, please just give us a call on Tel. No. 01883 372488 and we’ll be happy to run through your options with you.