Why You Should Avoid Guaranteed SEO Results

Good vs Bad SEO services represented by board game tiles sitting on a desk next to a keyboard and mouse.

Guarantees can be very persuasive marketing and sales tools. 

An interested audience member can easily become a new customer if a product or service is guaranteed. 

Why? 

When a company demonstrates its confidence in its product or services by offering a refund if the buyer is not satisfied, it essentially eliminates any transactional risk. And customers are more inclined to make risk-free purchases.

However, guarantees can also have negative consequences when misused. 

Some businesses may exploit the notion of a guarantee to lure customers into making a purchase – only to fail to deliver on their promise. And agencies that promise guaranteed search engine optimization (SEO) results are some of the biggest violators of this promise. 

In the following article, we’ll explain why guaranteed SEO results are a myth, support our claim with multiple reasons, and underscore the importance of working with an agency that uses legitimate SEO tactics to improve your website’s rankings and page results. 

What Are Guaranteed SEO Services?

Have you ever seen an online ad promising “First-page rankings in less than 30 days – or your money back”? 

If so, you’ve seen an example of an individual or agency that promises guaranteed SEO results. 

Essentially, these guaranteed SEO services promise customers such benefits as immediate high-rankings and priority access to search engines. 

While these offers seem extremely enticing and their outcomes incredibly rewarding, they are actually very deceptive. 

At best, any agency that offers a guaranteed SEO service lacks experience and knowledge. 

At worst, they’re being outright deceitful. 

In either scenario, these agencies are promising results that they cannot possibly deliver. Also, they’re not going to refund the customer’s money like they originally promised. Most likely, the small print in the contract will explain that matter in detail. 

Reasons Guaranteed SEO Results Don’t Work 

A knowledgeable and experienced agency never offers guarantees. 

Instead, they offer honesty and trust. 

These experts listen to their clients so they can understand their specific pain points and identify their business goals. Then they’ll use that information to develop a SEO strategy that helps their clients achieve these goals. 

One of the first points these experts stress in their initial client discussions is that SEO does not lead to overnight success. 

SEO is an ongoing process that changes and evolves over time. As trends change, search engines update their algorithms, and markets shift, SEO experts adjust their methods to pursue more favorable results. 

One thing an experienced and trustworthy agency will never do is offer guaranteed SEO results. There are multiple reasons why this is so: 

Search Engines Oppose SEO Guarantees

As Google warns in their Do You Need an SEO? document, No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a ‘priority submit’ to Google.”

Bing’s view on guaranteed SEO is expressed in the “Abuse and Examples of Things to Avoid” section of their Webmaster Guidelines document: “Most SEO practices render a website more appealing to Bing; however, performing SEO-related work does not guarantee rankings will improve or sites will receive an increase in traffic from Bing.”

Clearly, if the major search engines are publicly and unequivocally condemning guaranteed SEO rankings, then agencies who promise these results are unfamiliar with these guidelines.

Or, they’re hoping you’re unfamiliar with them so that they can use your lack of knowledge for their own advantage. 

SEO Cannot Control Search Engines

The complex algorithms that fuel Google, Bing, and other search engines are well-guarded secrets. 

The only people privy to this information reside at the highest levels of these companies. 

While search engines have offered some insight into a few of their ranking factors (mobile friendliness, backlinks, page speed, https) they’re not going to share their algorithms with outsiders. 

SEO experts know the best practices and methods for developing and implementing organic and paid search strategies

Some experts may be better than others at these methods. 

But even the best SEO agencies do not know how to manipulate or control the algorithms. If they did, search engines would lose their power.  

Guaranteed SEO Practices Violate Many Search Engine Policies

Agencies that offer guaranteed SEO services may demonstrate some impressive results during their initial strategies and campaigns. 

However, these results are typically short-lived.

Even more alarming, many of their practices often violate search engine policies. 

In the early days of SEO, agencies would use an array of “sneaky” tactics to rank higher: 

  • Keyword Stuffing –  Excessive use of multiple keywords in on-page content
  • Adding Unrelated Keywords to Pages – This tactic tries to trick audiences into visiting sites they believed were relevant to their query.
  • Buying Links – Paying other websites to include your link on their pages in an attempt to increase page rankings. 

While these tactics worked for a while, search engines became wise to these tricks. 

To protect their product from these methods, search engines began to fine-tune their ranking algorithms to disregard pages that displayed these trick tactics. 

Additionally, these search engine algorithm updates gave more weight to pages that offered more relevant and higher quality content.     

Many agencies that promise guaranteed SEO results are still using these “black hat” tactics. 

While these unsavory methods may work briefly, search engines are now wise to these tricks. 

Any guaranteed SEO victories will not only be short lived – they may cause serious problems for the offending website. 

Guaranteed SEO Results Can Have Negative Effects

Agencies that employ “black hat” tactics in pursuit of guaranteed SEO results often do more harm than good for their clients. 

That’s because Google, Bing and other search engines have a low tolerance for websites that attempt to fool their ranking algorithms. 

When search engines discover websites that are engaging in deceptive tactics, they’ll penalize these sites. 

A penalty can significantly reduce a site’s web ranking or result in the complete removal of the website from the search engine. 

Once a site receives a penalty, it is extremely difficult for them to ever recover.  

To avoid penalties, experienced SEO agencies adhere to Google’s best practices – and avoid “black hat” tactics at all costs. 

Work With SEO Experts You Can Trust 

As you can see, guaranteed SEO rankings seem wonderful on the surface. 

But if you scratch that surface you’ll discover that they’re more trouble than what they’re worth.

If you want to achieve the most optimal results in your SEO strategies, your best bet is to trust an experienced and reliable agency. 

Since 2014, Results Repeat has helped hundreds of companies drive more traffic to their sites, generate more leads and achieve their goals through our favorable SEO tactics and strategies. 

Our team of SEO experts listen to our clients to truly understand their specific needs and goals.  

Then, they create a custom strategy for each client to ensure that their website reaches the right audiences to increase their relevant traffic and qualified leads. 

Our team does this by adhering to industry standards, leveraging SEO best practices, and adjusting our ethical methods to sync with the latest search engine trends and updates. 

Instead of putting your SEO marketing in the hands of a less experienced (or unethical company) that promises guaranteed SEO results, trust an experienced and knowledgeable agency like Results Repeat. 

Contact our experts today to learn how we can create a customized organic or paid strategy for your business! 

  

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