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:

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!