Client Education 1 - Guaranteed Rankings

There is an inherent anomaly with assigning work to an expert: finding the right person and defining their responsibilities and goals requires expertise - which is what you need an expert for in the first place.

Transparent communication and access to impartial information are key to solving this, but these are precious commodities and time and time again I see webmasters & business owners defining SEO projects in terms which, while designed to ensure security & results, are framed in the very terms which make them vulnerable to a high cost-to-expense ratio.

Here then are a list of concepts people typically turn to to define SEO projects, but which should be considered carefully before applying to your own SEO efforts.

1. Guaranteed Rankings

How as a webmaster can I ensure real results? Well if your SEO specialist works on a result basis, surely this is the ultimate security - only pay for measurable results attained.

There are at least two real flaws in this thinking.

1. Defining results.

Pay-per-performance SEO often focuses on getting top 10 rankings for certain keyphrases. This brings us to one of the most difficult concepts webmasters need to grasp:

- Top rankings does not mean more traffic or more measurable action on your site.

Just because you specify a list of targeted keyphrases, and then get top rankings for those keyphrases, will your traffic or desired user action significantly increase. Many such per-per-ranking projects will focus on keyphrases which have little competition or traffic, so that while a number of top 10 rankings may be attained, site performance is only marginal.

2. Rankings Cannot Be Guaranteed.

It is unethical and possibly even illegal to guarantee search engine rankings. To guarantee rankings in Google for example means to guarantee you can control Google’s results.

Please pause to think about this. Can anyone really control Google - guaranteed? This is a ludicrous concept, the same as a lawyer for example, however good and however expensive, could never contemplate actually guaranteeing winning a case.

Noone can legitimately claim to control the results of a third party except the third party themselves. The only people who can truly guarantee rankings in Google, is Google.

3. OK, well what about Rankings with Money Back Guarantee?

One of the most attractive offers for clients who still want guaranteed rankings are SEO firms who offer a money back guarantee - they’ll work to get top 10 for a usually niche, low-traffic keyphrase, and if they don’t get results, you get money back.

Some providers may legitimately do this, bearing in mind point No. 1 above that rankings don’t always mean traffic or sales. The main difficulty with this is that you “get money back” - meaning you still have to hand over payment first. Once three-six months have passed, your results have or have not been achieved, you realise the implications of entering into an SEO contract and your credit card continues to be billed, - regrettably getting that money back can be much harder than it seems.

If you go the pay-per-results route, and there are some great people who do this, then above all find a provider who is interested in open communication, is willing to fairly distribute risk between both SEO provider and client, and is most importantly straightforward, upfront and honest.

Tagged as: pay per results seo, seo, seo agency