SEO Guarantee
It’s July 4th, so I was out in my garage working on my car, listening to WABC 770. A radio ad for search engine optimization (SEO) came on, believe it or not. This post isn’t about the permeation of SEO into the fabric of B2B but, rather, about the guarantee offered in the ad. (I really thought these guarantees had gone away a long time ago.) The provider’s SEO guarantee was this: if they don’t get top 10 rankings for you you don’t pay again until they do. Sounds good, right? This pitch has been around for at least 8 years - when I first encountered it. What’s the trick?
The firm guarantees that you pay them and, if after 90 days, they don’t have top 10 rankings for X of your keywords on the top search engines, you don’t pay until they do. The SEO guarantee “trick” lies within the small print.
Let’s say you have 100 keywords. They’ll guarantee 10, maybe 20 top ten rankings. Ok, so count on them being the worst keywords on your list. But even that’s not so bad. The big payoff (for them) is in the definition of “top search engines”: you think Google, Yahoo and MSN. They will define the group as something like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Looksmart, Lycos, Dogpile and other lesser engines. The problem(s):
- the “B level” search engines included easily give the SEO firm the rankings they need to satisfy the guarantee… with little value to the site owner
- even #3 search engine MSN can easily show rankings in 90 days, but it delivers less traffic volume than will satisfy most site owners
- there is often the ability for the SEO firm to simply pay for sponsored search “rankings” to satisfy the guarantee
So buyer beware…
I’m sure not all SEO guarantees are a rip off… although Google recommends that you reject them, clearly stating “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings…” And we won’t even get into how SEO is about more than rankings (it’s about ROI). But I wanted to make lawyers and other search engine optimization service consumers aware of how guaranteeing rankings should be a warning sign, not reassurance.
Have a happy 4th of July!
Technorati Tags: SEO
The guarantee is “legitimate” as long as you’re aware that you still may have ZERO rankings in Google or Yahoo once the guarantee is satisfied. This won’t make happy customers, in most instances. I know that (in the legal vertical) I could easily provide this guarantee, could easily satisfy that guarantee and could promote myself as wonderful for offering it… BUT, ultimately, my clients would not see the value.
I think you have a great ideas about SEO. So thanks for sharing this post for other readers. I really like this post.
yeah,that sure is a slippery slope. some key word phrases are soo competive that its almost impossible to rank well, so its definitely something that has to be taken on a case-by-case basis.
and there are other aspects involved with converting those rankings into sales conversions
a horrible site at the top of the listins is not going to convert well, usability and other issues must be addressed also
Sure they might be able to pull down the low hanging fruit and score quickly with phrases where there is little competition. But their claim is impossible to guarantee. They thrive on the fact that most customers when given a warranty or guarantee rarely take advantage of it.