Monday, August 17, 2009

Why Experienced SEO Consultants Do Not Guarantee Search Rankings

With the importance search engine optimization has attained in the past few years, the number of SEO consultants offering SEO services has also increased. This increase in service providers has brought along with it a plethora of tall claims like guaranteed no. 1 rankings, which continues to perplex organizations seeking SEO services as well as those providing it. But the fact remains that search rankings cannot be guaranteed. The following are four reasons why you shouldn't believe SEO consultants when they promise guaranteed rankings:

  • Search Engines Warn Against Guarantees
  • Any search engine, be it Google, Yahoo or the Microsoft's recently-introduced Bing, is unanimous in their opinion that guaranteeing a No. 1 position in their search engine is impossible. SEO consultants who guarantee search rankings are actually looking to hook less-informed clients. Such consultants cleverly sign a contract for SEO services guaranteeing rankings for certain keywords. They then go on to select and work on non-competitive keywords, which may quickly climb in rankings, but may not get in relevant web traffic. Search engines hence warn organizations to specifically avoid SEO consultants who guarantee rankings.


  • Search Rankings Constantly Fluctuate
  • The ordering of search results is likely to change every few minutes; even if you search for a particular keyword and then hit the refresh button, the order of the results may change. Experienced SEO consultants hence stay away from guaranteeing any position on rankings, preferring instead to focus on bringing in relevant web traffic and making the site more popular with regular visitors. Although SEO services are associated with search rankings, improved rankings are the end result of a lot of hard work, and even after best efforts, cannot be guaranteed.


  • Ethical Problems with SEO Guarantees
  • What SEO consultants should guarantee is the quality of SEO services they will provide. They can also evaluate your site and guarantee an increase in web traffic. But search ranking is something there is no guarantee for. SEO consultants who give such guarantees sometimes compromise on the ethical issues related of search engine optimization. They use Black Hat SEO techniques to boost the site rankings, which are considered unacceptable in the industry. A hasty job and unplanned steps may cause more harm to your SEO campaign than benefit it. It is hence wise to chose SEO services from those consultants who don't give guarantees but slowly and steadily work towards bringing in relevant traffic and slowly improving search rankings.


  • Search Rankings Do Not Reflect Overall Performance
  • This is something each organization needs to understand before launching its SEO campaign. SEO services should not be hired only for getting a good ranking in search results, but for getting relevant traffic towards one's website. Real performance of the SEO consultant can be judged through increase in relevant web traffic and not only rankings. Sometimes in the obsession of getting a website in the leading position, an SEO consultant botches up the job and more time is spent thereafter in repairing the damage done.

If you want to plan an effective SEO campaign for your organization, stay away from SEO consultants who offer "guaranteed No. 1 position" and "instant improvement in search rankings". Professional and experienced SEO consultants focus on getting relevant traffic, which is the purpose of search engine optimization in the first place.




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