SEO Guarantees

But what about SEO? Many people who come to us are under the assumption that SEO is a kind of puzzle with a definite, perfect solution - a little like Sudoku. It might take time, but as long as you fill in all the right numbers you’ll get there in the end. And “there” always appears to be top ten rankings, since that is what most people assume that they need. After all, there are plenty of SEO companies out there who are happy to give you a “ranking guarantee”. Surely that must mean that there is a recipe for search engine success, so why don’t all companies do the same?

The truth is that aside from the people who actually run the search engines, there’s nobody who can guarantee you a ranking of any kind. They can do things that have a good chance of influencing rankings, but they certainly cannot promise you a certain ranking for a certain phrase. So why do they, and how do they get away with it?

Unsurprisingly, the answer is usually hidden in the fine print, so let’s take a look at some of the companies who do this. Names have been changed, of course, and text altered.

“RipOffRankings will optimise your site for 20 keywords. We guarantee your site will be listed in the top 20 for 5 of these keywords, spread over 5 of the 25 main search engines.”

Looks good, at a glance, but what it basically translates to is this:

As long as you’re number 19 for at least one keyword on Lycos, LookSmart, AllTheWeb, HotBot and AltaVista, we keep your money.

A second company we’ve come across does it a different way, which involves the client doing virtually all the work. You, the client, are urged to write a blog, countless new articles, constant new content and so on. If after 12 months of this you still haven’t recovered the money you spent with them, they will carry on helping you for free - but only if you have done absolutely everything they told you to, and spent at least 10 hours a week on your site for the past 12 months. Sounds like nice work if you can get it!

A third company employs the most common tactic of all:

“At SEOScum we GUARANTEE that you will get top 10 in the search engines for YOUR chosen keywords. If we fail to do so in the time agreed, we will continue your services at no charge for 3 additional periods!”

Also very easy to translate:

You pay us to do a bad job, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll continue do a bad job for free for three months. We’ll keep the first payment, though.

Finally, my personal favourite:

“If we fail to meet the ranking guarantee at least once a month during a 12 month campaign, you can receive a money back refund equal to the prorated percentage of high rankings we did not earn.”

How are you supposed to get your head around that one? Other signs of an SEO company that you may want to avoid include making totally irrelevant claims (”One of our clients now has 188 pages indexed on Google!”), trying to dazzle with bold stupidity (”We specialise in optimizing sites so that they achieve top ten rankings on every major search engine!”!), and coming out with statements that make it painfully clear that they haven’t worked with many sites or been around for very long (”Our average search ranking, for all clients on all engines, is 7th”.) Yes, those are all real quotes, only very slightly altered.

In other words, there are plenty of optimisers out there that you want to avoid like the plague, or perhaps only seek out if you want a good chuckle. But the fact remains that SEO is a serious business, so what should you expect? What can a legitimate company offer you, if they can’t promise you high rankings?

Well, the first thing you want to do is stop focusing purely on rankings. You may think that they’re the bottom line, but they’re not - conversions are. Yes, it’s difficult to attract paying customers if all your rankings are in the low 50s, but it’s still important to keep in mind that rankings alone aren’t the holy grail of SEO.

A number one position for a certain keyword isn’t going to help you unless it’s targeted enough, and perfectly suited to what you’re offering. Similarly, a perfectly targeted keyword isn’t going to bring in any traffic unless people are searching for it. Experienced optimisers know that a successful SEO campaign is all about the keyword research, and trying to maximise the number of relevant, popular terms that you are found for. This takes time and effort, but although no guarantees can be made about rankings, it will virtually always increase the amount of targeted traffic to your site. This, in turn, should translate into increased sales for you.

In short: look out for SEOs who are serious about their keyword research, and who are happy to tell you exactly what they’re doing to your website and why. Accept that you’re unlikely to see any overnight changes, and stop obsessing about rankings. Focus on your product, and work with your SEO to make your website the best it can be. Traffic, and conversions, will follow.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE:

When it comes to updating software, there are three different user types.

Category 1 is the person who not only doesn’t care about updating their software, but doesn’t even know they can, should or need to. As a software developer you may be familiar with this person. Their long, long, long list of complaints were all addressed in the YourSoftware 2000 release.

Category 2 is the person who more or less whoops for joy when they see an update, as long as it’s free. The moment it’s available they’ll be among the first to install it. Whether or not they need the update is more or less irrelevant.

Category 3 knows that the update is available, but doesn’t like to rush these things. The “don’t fix what isn’t broken” adage fits their outlook perfectly, and unless there’s a compelling reason to upgrade, they probably won’t do so.

As for myself, I fall somewhere between the second and third. At some point we’ve all updated a piece of software that has then gone belly up, and caused us a huge amount of pain, anger and wasted hours.

Most of the software I use is for work, so generally speaking unless I have to update it, I don’t want to risk smashing my schedule to pieces by having to run a Windows Repair. Shudder.

Generally speaking. But there’s something about a free update. Maybe it’s the thought that the app will perform better. Maybe it’s the prospect of security holes being patched. Maybe it’s feeling as though you’re getting something for nothing. But the appeal is there.

Today I installed an update for my email client. It actually fixed a minor annoyance that has been bugging me for years. But it could have gone the other way. I could have been left wishing I’d left it well alone.

Perhaps it’s just my way of getting an adrenaline rush, without having to leap off bridges or jump out of planes. But sometimes I just have to update that software.