Get On The Front Page of Google! Guaranteed!
We’ve all seen websites guaranteeing first page Google rankings, but what does it really mean? Let’s look at two different methods and we will soon see that first page on Google is not as exciting (or difficult) as it might appear.
Guaranteed First Page on Google!
Whilst most viewers would read that headline and think, wow! How could an SEO firm guarantee that? we hate to burst bubbles here, but what they are talking about is Sponsored Links, on Google’s Adwords program. Those ads that appear at the top of the results when you search for something? Usually against a pale salmon background? And down the right hand side of Google’s pages? They are Adwords. There is nothing clever about guaranteeing you will appear in those results, because you PAY for it. Whether you pay to list in the top 3 or somewhere lower down the results, you will be paying every time someone clicks on your ad. We don’t have a problem with that… it’s a great advertising vehicle, we use it regularly, we ARE Google Adwords Professionals. What we DON’T like to see is SEO companies using the ‘Be Seen on The First Page of Google, Guaranteed!’ to mislead potential clients into believing that they will guarantee first page ‘Organic’ listings (the main results on the left hand side of the search results page).
Guaranteed Search Engine Rankings!
This is the hard bit. As described in my article ‘Guaranteed SEO Rankings?’, it is possible for an SEO firm to guarantee their work and to push their services on the basis of previous successes, but there is no real way to ENSURE that a client’s website appears on the first page of results. Some firms, including ourselves, won’t charge a client unless we succeed. We think this is a good way to operate. We then have a vested interest in seeing our clients get on the first page of results, or we don’t get paid. And we also have an interest in KEEPING them there, as we want renewals, not just a once-off fee for achieving a singular result. And at the end of the day, one bad result can mean one angry client, which can mean ten friends who know of the failure, which means 100 potential customers who won’t deal with the firm who failed to achieve those rankings.
So, before jumping headlong and signing up with a company, determine first what they mean (Sponsored Links vs Organic Results) as this may save a lot of grief, anger and confusion down the track.