About SEO Guarantees
I see it so often…. TOO often - SEO companies offering a guarantee for top positions in the search engines. While it may sound impressive, it makes me cringe.
Can I Guarantee #1 Rankings on Google?
Of course! I can guarantee that I can make your site rank high, or even #1, in Google for keyword search terms. It’s easy.
In one DAY , I had my blog rank #1 for a keyword term out of over 800,000 competing pages. Isn’t that impressive? Take a look and see for yourself (click the image for a larger view):
However, do you notice the keyword search term? “Purple Banana Hats”.
Sure, I have a #1 ranking on Google! But who in the WORLD is looking for purple banana hats?
Exactly, no one is.
The goal of an effective website optimization is to get your site ranked highly for terms related to your site and for terms people are actually searching for.
“Purple Banana Hats” just won’t cut it….unless, you sell purple banana hats.
SEO Scam Warnings:
As in any industry, there are those out there that make life harder for the good guys (and gals). While searching for SEO services, beware of the following:
- If you come across a website optimization company that guarantees results, consider clicking the back button on your browser.
- If you come across a link building company that guarantees improved search engine rankings, BUT won’t tell you where they are putting links to your site….run.
- If you find an SEO service you are interested in, but are taken straight to the check-out page without FULLY understanding what you are purchasing, do not pay. ASK!
Can You Buy First Page Placement?
Another way to ‘guarantee’ first page exposure on search engines is to buy your placement there thru paid advertising. Ever see those ads on the right side of a Google search results page? Sometimes at the top, too? Those are Google AdWords ads….a form of Pay-Per-Click advertising. If you use this type of PPC service, each time someone clicks on those ads, you get charged.
While PPC can be effective for a new site, sites in a highly competitive market, or sites that offer products and/or service with a high profit margin, the average small business owner does not need this added monthly expense.
Spending that money on monthly professional SEO and off-page optimization services will go much further for most websites.
What Effective SEO Does
Back to the ‘purple banana hats’ scenario…
Having your site rank for unrelated terms or keywords that bring virtually no traffic is virtually useless. However, having your site rank high for search terms that people ARE looking for is the best free advertising your company will ever get - right up there with ‘word-of-mouth’!
Passive Income from Search Engine Optimization
” SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, where you obtain top 10 search engine rankings for specific keyword terms in order to attract highly targ.eted traffic to your products, services or information. Using this method you set up the web page or site, obtain the rankings, and then you are able to make sales and earn profits “passively” from that point forward. Instead of being out “making the sale”, the search engines are making those sales for you - day and night. ” source
Here is an example of a keyword I DID optimize for on my blog…and the search engine ranking result out of over 9 MILLION competing pages:
(Note: Click the image to see it more clearly if needed)
That #1 ranking for that one keyword phrase brings me a nice amount of additional traffic to my blog. Those that have issues with Google not sending traffic to their web page, naturally click one of the first results they find when searching for a solution.
Why Professional SEO Services do NOT Guarantee Top Rankings
In the search engine ranking industry, there are a list of things that are ever-changing in the marketplace that can effect how your site ranks in the search engines and what results you will experience due to those rankings:
- You change/create something on your website
- You change/create something that points to your website
- Your competitors change/create something on their website
- Your competitors change/create something that points to their website
- The search engine algorithm changes
- The way searchers search changes
- The market for your product/service changes
In summary, if you change, if your competitors change, if the search engines change, or if the consumers change….you can be sure that the search engine rankings and ROI on your website will change, too.
Professional SEO services help your site stay on top of these changes. While we offer website optimization packages that get your site where it needs to be, a truly effective SEO campaign for a website is an on-going process to keep it there.
Interested in having your site rank higher in the search engines so you can enjoy more free, organic traffic, too?
