Guarantees in SEO – 100% Hocus Pocus?

Posted on | July 13, 2009 | 4 Comments

An interesting commenter dialogue discussing ‘SEO guarantees’ took place on my Marketing Pilgrim guest post. An innocent comment supporting the article’s take on the vast array of grandiose guarantees and claims made in the SEO industry, led to a debate on ‘SEO ranking guarantees’ vs. guarantees based on ‘performance based pricing’.

There is a clear difference between the two. This post will shed some light on the straight SEO rankings guarantee that should be avoided at all costs and the pay for performance (PFP) scenario that can actually cushion the risks of SEO.

SEO Ranking Guarantees – The Big No-No!
When making ‘guarantees’ the ultimate business faux pas in ethical SEO is guaranteeing SEO rankings. This is not because 1st page rankings cannot be achieved but rather the back door tactics that are traditionally implemented when making the guarantee statement.

According to the Oxford dictionary, a ‘guarantee’ is:
“a formal promise or assurance, esp. that an obligation will be fulfilled or that something is of a specified quality and durability”

The intrinsic problem with most SEO guarantees made online is that expected ‘quality’ or ‘formal assurance of fulfilling an obligation’ is devoid in these guarantees. There is absolutely no element of customer value because the guarantee is driven by the notion of making an easy buck through the manipulation of the uninformed rather than fulfilling a value proposition.

Let me illustrate. Below is an example of an SEO ranking guarantee:
‘Submit Express will guarantee at least 20 top 10 rankings within 6 months across the major 15 search engines or your money back.’ (source)

What’s wrong with this you ask? 20 top 10 rankings across 15 search engines, that sounds pretty good! That is exactly the problem, it sounds good, but it’s not!

Let’s break up this statement – where are the loopholes?

‘will guarantee at least 20 top 10 rankings’

•    How do you know how valuable or competitive these keywords will be?
•    Are these long tail keywords for which your site may ALREADY rank?
•    How much valuable traffic will these keywords drive to your site?
•    What is the expected ROI on the traffic from these keywords?

‘across the major 15 search engines’

• First problem – there are ONLY 3 major search engines, they are referred to as the ‘Big 3’ or ‘Tier I’ search engines, they are:
- Google
- Yahoo!
- Bing

4th on the list is Ask.com, this engine actually has its own search engine and feeds other engines. The other search engines such as (AOL.com, iWon.com, EarthLink.com, DogPile.com, MyWay.com etc) feed their search results from the above four engines in some form or other.

For a clearer picture of market share, a July 2009 Hitwise report summarises the current market share picture:
Hitwise U.S. Search Market Share

In other words, In June 2009, Google was utilised for 74.04% searches performed by the sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users.

The search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com) account for 98.63% of the total searches, leaving all the other search engines with 1.37% share for which to compete!

The final word: The above ‘guarantee’ will rank your site across 15 ‘major’ search engines, 11 of which account for 1.37% search engine market share for keywords whose value impact on ROI are questionable without further information.

For further insight on some of the shady practices used by certain businesses that guarantee rankings, check out this YOUmoz entry.

Guarantees like the one discussed, abound and it is primarily for this reason that reputable SEO firms don’t promise guaranteed search engine rankings.

Pay for Performance Guarantees
Success / performance based pricing or pay for performance (PFP) as this pricing model is often referred to works on the premise that the client will make certain payments based on the rankings / traffic / ROI that has been achieved. The exact model will vary from contract to contract but the premise remains that the client must see real traffic value before making any significant payments.

This model has its benefits for the uncertain client as it provides a safety net and minimises client risk. It is different from the straight ‘SEO ranking guarantee’ because it says: ‘If SEO company achieves X, client pays Y, but if X is not achieved, client does not pay Y.

The focus of the guarantee changes because the SEO provider is no longer guaranteeing SEO rankings (which in effect the SEO company cannot control) but rather guaranteeing its service.

What this says is this: ‘We (SEO company) are confident that you (the client) will be satisfied with our services. We (SEO firm) do not control rankings but we do control our own strategy and we are confident of our abilities. Thus, if we do not achieve the agreed to goals of meeting satisfactory SEO results, you (the client) do not make any payments.’

But what are Satisfactory SEO Results?
We’re back to that hitch! How do you know that the PFP terms & conditions are going to be in your (the client’s) favour? YOU DON’T! It is important to remember that PFP can also be manipulated to the advantage of the SEO firm rather than the client. It is not a panacea to avoiding SEO ranking guarantee scams.

It is for this reason that whatever SEO agreement you sign, you need to be sure that you understand the lingo, jargon, fine print and any other question marks on which you are unclear.

Any reputable SEO firm will explain exactly what the contract states and should, if asked, break down the terminology in such a manner that both parties are completely clear on what the agreement is really saying.

Pay for performance may work for some clients but not every SEO firm will offer these types of agreements. Why? Try saying to your lawyer that you’ll pay them when you’re happy with the level of service they are providing you!

So, stay away from SEO ranking guarantees, consider PFP if that rocks your boat but most of all, do your research, know what you’re signing and don’t be hoodwinked by online scammers!

Surely, if the No.1 Google position for a term like ‘office furniture’ is potentially worth millions of dollars, how on earth can this term be ranked in the top position for a few hundred dollars?

It can’t! Get used to it – reputable SEO is a resource intensive, high value, medium-to-high cost, long term investment! If you want to make millions from your rankings, cough up more than a few hundred bucks to achieve those positions!

Category: SEM Agency
Tags: Search Engine Optimisation

Comments

4 Responses to “Guarantees in SEO – 100% Hocus Pocus?”

The Visible Dentist
July 14th, 2009 @ 4:50 pm

Hi Marta,

Since I am/was the person rocking the SEO boat in your guest post, allow me to elaborate a bit more.

First and foremost I disagree with the assertion that website owners should avoid guarantees in SEO, and as you conclude, I object to those who seek to claim that any SEO service offering a guarantee is a scam.

Now that we know where I stand, let me assure you, we offer an SEO guarantee and we’re 100% legit, effective and recommended by both peers and clients.

So who is fooling who?

I’m familiar with Rand Fishkin and the hundreds other SEO outfits that cover their butts by saying, watch out for guarantees, they’re all rip-offs. Total BS. If a company can throw that line out there it means they have a license to steal with impunity. Don’t be a sucker.

I specialize in the dental industry — though, I’ve worked just about every industry since ‘99 with hundreds of successful campaigns. You’ve probably visited websites that I positioned.

That said, allow me to finish where you left off — you were going pretty good there till you hit some sort of Fishbump.

What this says is this: ‘We (SEO company) are confident that you (the client) will be satisfied with our services. We (SEO firm) do not control rankings but we do control our own strategy and we are confident of our abilities. Thus, if we do not achieve the agreed to goals of meeting satisfactory SEO results, you (the client) do not make any payments.’

But what are Satisfactory SEO Results?

The above is almost exactly our operating model — The Visible Dentist says just that; we do not charge until we attain results. What kind of results?

We target the most competitive keywords for our clients and we show them the numbers — NOT 10 word longtails; real 2 and 3 word phrases highly relevant to their target market and very productive in terms of traffic, profit and ROI.

We also benchmark starting keywords — the client receives bi-weekly ranking reports and is always kept in the loop — there is no manipulation in our favor at all — to the contrary. The deck is stacked in favor of our clients and unless we perform, we don’t get paid. It’s a very simple and effective model, for all parties concerned.

Contract? Never used them — and don’t want anything binding; our clients love the concept. We give our word to perform a service for a fella and accept the client’s word in kind to pay for services rendered. We’ve never had a problem.

A few hundred bucks for first page positions? I don’t think so; we’re not cheap, though not out of reach. Our prices are actually commensurate with client ROI expectations.

I’m sorry if this sounds too good to be true — but it is. While all you guys are arguing about it what to do and how to do it, our clients are laughing all the way to the bank — and them some.

If you have questions, by all means I’m listening.

Cheers!

John Barremore
Houston, TX
Marta Turek
July 14th, 2009 @ 5:53 pm

Hi John,

Thank you for your input! I wanted to clarify my point of view so that any confusion can be cleared up.

I am against those hack websites that clearly and blatantly rip off the uninformed by promising unachievable SEO goals. You know the type, ridiculous claims of website submission to 1000s of search engines and top rankings across hundreds of engines that people do not use.

In terms of providing ‘pay for performance’ guarantees, as I understand The Visible Dentist provides, I think these can work very effectively for clients. Especially, if the terms of the agreement are built around competitive keywords and traffic level goals that will drive a positive ROI for the client. This is exactly
what I tried to say in the post, is to explain to people what the difference is and that ‘pay for performance’ could be an option for them.

Please understand that my post does not discuss ‘pay for performance’ from the perspective of what The Visible Dentist offers – so in my paragraph:

But what are Satisfactory SEO Results? From a general point of view, I am bringing to the reader’s attention that even ‘pay for performance’ can be manipulated against the client. That is not to say that all SEOs do this, nor to imply in any form whatsoever that John, your business, would ever do this.

What drove me to write this post is that in the comments on the Marketing Pilgrim post there appeared to be a misunderstanding between straight ‘SEO ranking guarantees’ vs. ‘pay for performance guarantees’. I wanted to clarify this to those who may be confused by the two, or even consider them to be the same thing.

I cannot simply say that ‘pay for performance’ is great, without pointing out to people that there may be loopholes because people who are not familiar with the SEM industry may not understand some of these loopholes, unless they are pointed out.

I have previously worked with SEO clients on a PFP model and found that it can really work well, particularly for those businesses who are hesitant dipping their toe into the SEO pool. I think the PFP model itself has many positive points and certainly, one in which contracts are not utilised is even better for the client.

So, in conclusion, I wish you all the very best with SEO in the dental industry! It sounds like your model works very well for your clients – having a few dentists in the family – I think that it would be the way to go (especially if the dentists you work with are as far removed from the Internet as those in my family!)

Thank you for your feedback!

Marta
The Visible Dentist
July 14th, 2009 @ 6:41 pm

Marta,

I must say you’re always the pleasant host and indeed always great to chat with online.

Forgot to mention above that in addition to guaranteeing benchmarks, our clients all invariably attain dozens and in some cases, even a hundred or more 1st page positions.

And if I may be so bold, for a competitive keyword value that I would invoice say $5K, R. Fishkin would charge about $150K for the same job. Though that’s not the only difference.

Fishkin to my best recollection doesn’t actually do anything; he charges for a website review and for some suggestions for the client to follow. Myself on the other hand, I actually perform the SEO and position the site.

I think you’ll find that those who seek to divert your attention away from their own deeds are the most “guilty” of the biggest scams of all. The “submit to 1000’s of search engines” albeit still somewhat an effective sucker bait, is such an old grift that it barely merits mention anymore.

If the SEO isn’t capable of positioning a website within their niche, and/or is unwilling to guarantee their work, IMO he or she doesn’t deserve the job. Clients shouldn’t have to pay for incompetency.

John Barremore
Houston, TX
Marta Turek
July 14th, 2009 @ 8:36 pm

Thank you John! It has been a pleasure discussing this topic with you and I look forward to other discussions in the future!