Promised An SEO Guarantee? Here’s What You Need To Know
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Trying to find an SEO guarantee? You might find some digital agencies offering this to win customers over. They offer a guarantee on the outcomes of their work and a promise to achieve specific results through their SEO service.
This could be reaching a certain page ranking on search engines, building a set number of backlinks, or another metric.
Not all SEO agencies are created equal. Some are better than others, but with that said, even the best SEO companies can't guarantee SEO. That means they can't offer a page guarantee, a search results guarantee, or any other guaranteed SEO services.
So, that makes you wonder:
- Are SEO guarantees legit?
- How does an SEO guarantee work?
- How can a company guarantee its SEO work?
- Are SEO guarantee services a scam?
We'll uncover all this and more in this article.
Let's get into it!
Contents
What’s An SEO Guarantee?
Well, a guarantee is about promising that a certain outcome will happen. An SEO guarantee means the SEO agency promises a specific outcome or SEO results will happen through their service.
What guaranteed SEO outcomes are there?
- Page Ranking
- Google Business Profile
- Zero technical SEO errors
- On-page or off-page SEO.
But SEO isn't as straightforward as you'd imagine. It's complex, and SEO agencies have no control over many determining outside factors.
SEO ranking is determined by search engine algorithms, which are changing constantly. They are also not easily defined and can be difficult to interpret.
Promising a guaranteed SEO ranking is somewhat obscure.
Agencies or any party outside of search engines don't have much control over SEO. All they can do is implement practices and strategies to help them reach their end goal.
Can SEO Results Be Guaranteed?
No, SEO results can't be guaranteed. Despite some claims you might see online, guaranteed high SEO results can't happen.
It's trying to predict something you don't have 100% control over search engine algorithm updates, competition, etc.
Working with an SEO provider promising SEO guarantees could leave you with poor results that could hurt your site's search performance:
- Temporary boosts in SEO, which return back to its original state shortly after
- Ranking for irrelevant keywords
- Using practices that aren't legit to boost rankings, like black hat tactics or bots.
Or, worst of all, it could be a scam!
Here's what Bing says about their webmaster guidelines:
Following these guidelines will help with indexing of your site on Bing. It will also help you optimize your site to increase its opportunity to rank for relevant queries in Bing’s search results. Please pay special attention to the guidance in the “Abuse section” and examples in the “Things to avoid” section. Following the guidelines will ensure your site plays by the rules and is not found to be spammy, which could lead to demotion or even delisting your website from Bing search results.
Bing
Guaranteed SEO is something to try to stay away from at all costs. It's best just to use an SEO expert that's credible and doesn't offer false promises like an SEO guarantee.
So, Why Have SEO Anyway?
SEO in itself can be helpful for search rankings. SEO professionals and SEO experts use their skills, knowledge, and experience to make educated guesses about how to improve your SEO results.
They use certain factors and processes to create a strategy to help improve the search engine optimization of your website.
An SEO company can help you, but guaranteed SEO services aren't something they can promise.
However, an SEO company can guarantee their work.
Basically, they uphold what they say they will do, like:
- Create 10 pieces of content for your website
- Secure a Google Business profile
- Spend 10 hours/month working on the technical SEO of your website.
These performance-based metrics are based on the work the SEO company does. They can guarantee they will do their work, but guaranteeing an SEO outcome, like page one Google ranking or minimum traffic outcome, isn't something that can be guaranteed.
Does SEO Guarantee Sales?
SEO does not guarantee sales. While it can lead to increased traffic and leads, it may not result in more sales for the company.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, as they say.
Improving your site SEO is incredibly helpful, but, more website traffic landing on a poorly designed sales page or a poorly converting product won't do you much good.
Many factors contribute to a sale, like website quality, user experience, trust, credibility, etc.
Why Should You Work With An SEO Agency?
SEO agencies can help you increase your visibility in search engines. You shouldn't look for guaranteed SEO results because, honestly, that doesn't truly exist, as we mentioned above.
But an SEO agency can help you in several other productive ways:
- Provide an SEO site audit
- Optimize your site speed
- Optimize your site for mobile and other technical SEO components
- Create and execute a search engine marketing strategy
- Improve your Google SERP rankings
- Create a Google Business Profile for your business
- Give you SEO tips to utilize in the future in your content production, web design, etc.
This SEO work can be incredibly valuable for companies. It can lead to a stronger website presence online, higher rankings, more traffic, and more sales.
These changes can be immediate or happen over time.
Should You Pay An SEO Company For SEO Work?
If you want to improve your site's SEO, working with an SEO professional is the recommended path to take. Doing SEO yourself if you're not an expert can potentially devastate your website.
You could end up wasting a lot of time doing unnecessary work or doing SEO work wrong:
- Ineffective keyword research
- Improper keyword targeting
- Ineffective content optimization
- Inadequate backlink strategy
- Missed opportunities.
You could also possibly ruin your site if your SEO efforts result in Google penalties or a drop in rankings.
Go with an SEO provider to help you improve your SEO.
How Do You Choose An SEO Agency?
Choosing the right SEO agency is an important decision. You want to work with a reputable, trusted SEO provider who will help you with your site's search engine ranking and overall SEO efforts.
Here are some things to consider:
- Prioritize your goals
- Consider budget
- Evaluate experience and expertise
- Consider a comprehensive approach.
Choosing and prioritizing your goals is about identifying the objectives you want to achieve through SEO like improving organic traffic or search engine rankings. The goals for SEO for startups can differ from SEO goals for more seasoned businesses. Take care in setting and prioritizing your goals for SEO.
Next, look at your budget. Consider the average SEO costs, then understand your budget constraints and choose an SEO company that meets your needs.
Look at companies with a proven track record of success. Decide if you want to work with a niche agency or more of a general SEO company.
A niche agency may specialize in a particular industry, like dentists, restaurants, or specialized SEO practices like technical SEO or local SEO. A general agency may do it all, being able to cover all these areas without a specific specialty in any field.
Then, decide if you want to take a comprehensive approach, addressing all SEO aspects rather than specific ones, like link building or content creation only.
A comprehensive strategy is often best because it tends to be more effective overall.
With all this in mind, you can choose your ideal SEO company to partner with.
How Do Search Engines Rank Websites Anyway?
Search engines use a complex algorithm that looks at factors like:
- Site speed
- Usability and website design layout
- Social media impact
- Inbound and outbound links
- Business reputation.
There's no shortcut to SEO. SEO guarantees aren't legit, but you don't need an SEO guarantee to improve your site's SEO performance.
Big improvements can happen with proper SEO. Work with a trusted, reputable SEO service that can help you achieve your goals.
Bottom Line on SEO Guarantees
While guaranteed SEO services sound very attractive, in reality, it's not a promise any SEO agency or SEO company should be offering. With so many factors at play, you have to wonder about the company's history and reputation if they're willing to commit to guaranteed SEO results.
Remember that guaranteed results at the end of your SEO campaign are just hype.
So, what kind of results are you hoping for from your SEO campaign?
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