Entrepreneurs know that if customers can’t find their business online, it will be almost impossible for customers to find them in person. The clear necessity for SEO only increases the risk of costly scams like guaranteed SEO services. If you’re a business owner in need of SEO services, follow along to learn about the pitfalls of guaranteed SEO service scams and how to defend against them.
For business owners who are ready to start their SEO journey with credible, resilient organic SEO services, give us a call and see how we can help you grow!
What are Guaranteed SEO Services?
Guaranteed SEO is a scam. An SEO firm selling ‘guaranteed’ SEO services is like a convenience store selling ‘guaranteed’ lottery tickets; someone’s not telling the truth. Recently, many malevolent SEO companies have become successful by taking advantage of inexperienced entrepreneurs with guaranteed SEO service schemes. These firms prosper by making empty guarantees about specialized SEO tactics, services, and results that are all too often unnecessary, irrelevant, and impossible to uphold.
Unfortunately, in becoming one of the most important and beneficial aspects of all digital marketing campaigns, SEO has also become one of the most treacherous when it comes to service scandals. To the eager and unaware, some SEO promises can seem plausible, achievable, and righteous; while providing no real impact on rankings or the overall marketing campaign. Business owners in need of SEO services should wait to hire someone who will be honest about their SEO experience, efficacy, and strategies.
Can You Trust Guaranteed SEO?
Business owners and marketing leaders should question the integrity, competence, and capabilities of any SEO company that touts achievement before action. Neither SEO services nor their results can be guaranteed. Due to the lack of awareness surrounding this facet of digital marketing, new businesses are being taken advantage of every day. The act of guaranteeing SEO services is deceptive and can cause long-lasting, sometimes irreparable, damage to the client’s marketing resources, customer impressions, and the overall success.
SEO swindlers that successfully persuade innocent business owners into paying thousands of dollars towards empty SEO investments tend to do so under the false pretense that SEO services can be guaranteed in the first place. But no part of SEO can be guaranteed, and those who say otherwise should not be trusted. The best way for business owners to protect themselves from becoming victims of SEO fraud is to become educated on the prevalent guaranteed SEO service schemes as well as the empty promises that can come with them.
Types of SEO Guarantees
While any guaranteed SEO service can be considered indecent, they definitely come in more than one shade of despicable! Of the many SEO lies available, there are two common types of SEO guarantee schemes: service based SEO guarantees and result focused SEO guarantees. Both types of SEO guarantees are harmful not only to a company’s current marketing success, they’re potentially detrimental to their industry authority, their customer impressions, and their digital marketing as a whole.
SEO guarantees can be hard to catch because the promised strategies and tactics may be genuinely advantageous for an SEO campaign of any industry, but the difference is in the details. The following descriptions will give business leaders a little more insight into the world of guaranteed SEO scams, providing a little more protection when it comes to hiring a new SEO specialist.
Service Based SEO Guarantees
Service based SEO guarantees are founded solely on the implementation of the promised SEO services themselves. If the success of the guaranteed service is based solely on the act of providing it, business leaders should assume that the services being advocated for are as irrelevant as the SEO firm guaranteeing them. Usually unethical, unnecessary, and detrimental to the company’s marketing plan, these types of service based SEO guarantees will be extravagantly priced, take very little effort to complete, and have even less ROI.
Common service based SEO guarantees will read like so: “If there are technical difficulties with your website, our guaranteed 24/7 website monitoring service will allow you to find out exactly what’s going on in minutes!” and “We can place you in a top spot on Google SERPs – Guaranteed!” First of all, if something goes wrong with the website, the owner is going to want help, not more witnesses. And if the firm can guarantee a ‘top spot’ on the SERPs (Search Engine Result Page) it’s actually in the rankings and not by SEO.
If SEO firms try to sell a potential client on multiple nuanced SEO services before the first meeting, their actions are ill-intended. Some good questions to keep on hand would be: What is the main goal of this service? To what extent are you going to follow through with and manage each of these actions? Are these results long-term or short-term? What is the overall impact of each? Why is that necessary?
Result Focused SEO Guarantees
Result focused SEO guarantees focus on metrics that are unimportant or do not deserve as much attention as they are being given. These results are normally vague where specification is necessary. Result focused SEO guarantees can sound similar to promises like these: “We can guarantee an increase in your website traffic overnight!” and “We can exponentially increase the number of links to your webpage within days!” With an enthusiastic voice and good communication skills, these metrics can sound like a dream come true, but these promises only distract businesses from the real issue: metrics like these are virtually meaningless.
Metrics that actually demonstrate how effectively a company is achieving their operational and strategic goals are called KPIs, key performance indicators. Guaranteeing an increase in website traffic is great if the increased traffic is leading to a corresponding increase in conversions. If there is no change in sales or customer engagement, then the extra traffic, most likely bot traffic, is only taking up space on the server and bogging down the system.
In the beginning, guaranteed SEO services provide a sense of security to the customer, but in the end, it’s more likely a false sense of security. When presented with a list of ‘indispensable’ services and success metrics the best questions to ask are straightforward and open-ended. The guaranteed services and metrics must be thoroughly justified, not just promised.
Dangers of SEO First Page Guarantees
It’s no secret that the preeminent goal for SEO campaigns is to make it to page 1 in the SERPs. It’s also no secret – to SEO professionals anyways – that this task is painstakingly time-consuming and laborious. If this goal is guaranteed at the initial meeting, business owners should be aware of the lies and scams that will inevitably follow. For SEO-gullible business owners, a persuasive SEO scammer that’s guaranteeing fabricated SERP results may be able to persuade them that quickly jumping to the top of the first page is achievable. This false confidence will also push them to invest in the fruitless services the sinister SEO firm will surely provide.
While there are tactics that have been proven to help businesses rank at the top of SERPs, there is no way to ensure overall ranking based on SEO alone, or any other marketing services for that matter. Search engines change and update their algorithms and standards consistently without warning and each update causes a ripple effect of SERP shifts that no one can foresee. Last year, Google alone updated their algorithms almost once a month, and not only do search engine analytics change often, their intricacies are vastly foreign to most web developers.
Any SEO firm that claims to have a special understanding of search engine analytics and future rankings is likely overconfident and inexperienced in resilient SEO strategies and comprehensive SEO campaigns. Those who are currently at the top of the SERPs made it there over time with patience and adaptable marketing strategies; they cannot be knocked off easily. It’s recommended for entrepreneurs to pay attention to the timeline in which these services are supposed to be provided. If an SEO firm believes that they can guarantee #1 SERP rankings in less than four months, they are sadly mistaken.
Bad SEO tactics can have entrepreneurs spending lots of time, money, and resources on SEO with no results to show for it. Or even worse, the same entrepreneur might spend even more money to have shady tactics implemented into their marketing plan over time. Bait-and-switch ploys can be even more hazardous because they are hard to find, and unfortunately, once they’re found the damage is already done. Tactics like these propel innocent companies into a SERP rut, reducing their overall ranking, site traffic, and sales to levels lower than before the SEO trickster came along.
Why the Best SEO Companies Stay Away from Guaranteed SEO Results
The best SEO companies stay away from guaranteeing SEO services and assuming results because it’s simply impossible to do either, but they are the best for a reason. Less than six percent of all search engine clicks happen after Page 1. To stay relevant, SEO companies have had to develop proven tactics to help keep their clients in the fight for the top spot. But even after all this, it is still important to note that there is still no way for companies to guarantee SERP rankings.
Another reason the best SEO companies steer clear of guaranteeing SEO results from the start is because of the time and research required to produce a successful comprehensive SEO marketing plan. A marketing company may be able to provide testimonials of previous successes with other companies but every company is different, each industry has its own trends and search engines change their minds on what they like daily. Qualified SEO companies understand the depth and amount of research needed prior to identifying or proposing any future tactics. To guarantee the results of a marketing plan that has not even been conceived is fundamentally immoral and misleading to unsuspecting entrepreneurs.
Potential SEO clients should be aware that all SEO campaigns need ample time to build momentum due to the volatile nature of SERP rankings. There is an equally considerable amount of time needed to acquire all the relevant SEO data, accurately analyze it, define the results, and assess their impact on the overall marketing strategy. This alone cancels out any promises of page 1 rankings made before the initial interview.
Other Ways to Measure an SEO Company
An SEOs expectations cannot be held any higher than the quality of the business or website which they represent; with that being said, business owners have to be ready to allow for more time and resources than they initially expected. When creating a marketing plan, SEO consultants are aware that the main goal for business leaders is to generate the most visibility with the least investment possible. This is a huge ask for any digital marketing agents today, let alone an SEO specialist; but SEO specialists understand how important their position is on the marketing team and they play it well. The following list of attributes will help entrepreneurs easily recognize a genuine SEO strategist from a swindler.
Qualities to Look For in SEO Specialists
They are inquisitive.
The main component of a successful SEO marketing campaign is the customization of services based on the unique definition of success to the hiring company itself. Experienced specialists will ask many questions about the hiring company. Questions like: What makes your business unique within your industry? Who are your competitors? What makes you valuable to your target customers? And how can SEO help? are all great clues that the SEO firm is genuinely interested in the success of the potential client, not just their own.
They’re not afraid of fluctuation.
Rank fluctuations tend to get a bad rap from new SEO clients, but with a little help from an experienced SEO professional, they’ll soon realize that fluctuations are necessary, common, and ultimately beneficial. A good understanding of SEO strategies will manifest in adaptable and resilient SEO tactics that not only anticipate potential rank fluctuations but use them to help improve on already successful tactics.
They provide evidence.
SEO experts know that their field of marketing is confusing and ever-changing. If they want to gain the confidence of their potential SEO client they will have to do what they can to be considerate in their speech and transparent in their actions. An SEO professional will support their service proposals with documentation supporting their case. The information provided should justify the need for the proposed changes, if it is accepted and supported by Google, and give a full explanation on how these particular tactics and strategies will benefit the marketing plan.
They demand a lot of time and attention.
One of the most common struggles trustworthy SEO firms run into is the customer’s need for expedient service paired with a lack of availability. Once implemented, average SEO tactics need at least four months before they become profitable or show any progress. Many times it is not that the SEO is incapable of creating a great marketing plan, but that the potential businesses, unfortunately, don’t allot enough time to help create, implement, or support the SEO’s strategy.
They will readily provide references.
SEO specialists have an important role to play on every marketing team, no matter how small. Prior clients provide useful insight into the guidance and training that the potential employer can anticipate to receive as well as the potential compatibility and work ethic. The best thing to hear from an SEO specialist’s previous employer is their continued SEO success due to them even after their parting.
They want to help!
SEO audits are comprehensive and massively dependent upon the ambiguous standards of search engines, current consumer trends, and website efficiency. While there are some facets of marketing that have straightforward investment and return metrics, ROI data based on SEO strategies can be difficult to analyze because there are so many factors. SEO experts understand that while their main responsibility is providing SEO magic, their customers’ satisfaction is paramount to the marketing process and their overall employment. Businesses need to pay close attention to the bedside manner of their potential SEO consultant.
They won’t ask you to sign long-term contracts.
This is one of the sneakiest ways that SEO clients get taken advantage of. Since SEO strategies need time to mature and become fruitful, devious SEO companies have found a way to take advantage of this. Some SEO firms blindside naive business owners with long-term contracts filled with short-term intent. In this ploy, businesses are tricked into paying for months of useless SEO services upfront, as they won’t see the real results of their lackluster service until months into the contract.
They ask for or willingly provide SEO audits.
When interviewing SEO candidates, hiring managers should ask their potential employees to complete a set of SEO audits: one technical and one search. These audits help potential employers gain a deeper understanding of the SEO strategies they believe in, what their overall vision is, what their assumed goals for the company are, and the tactics they plan to implement along the way. SEO firms that skate around the idea of audits or consistently forget to provide them are most likely considering some low-level, black-hat SEO services and should be left alone.
SEO Services You Can Trust
SEO is an extremely important part of any business’ marketing strategy and should be handled accordingly. At Flyrise, we place integrity, transparency, and client success above all else. We provide digital marketing packages that are customized and meticulously planned based on our client’s unique company vision and their definition of success.
Companies with successful SEO campaigns have realized that investing more in their SEO campaign is really just investing more in their consumer’s overall brand experience. Our clients can rest easy knowing that they are receiving premier SEO services from an experienced digital marketing company that not only considers their client’s success and happiness a priority but fundamental parts of the marketing blueprint!
Visit our organic SEO services page today to find out how we can help position your company for long-term success.