The current market is saturated with several SEO agencies guaranteeing to take your website of the first page lighting fast.

In fact, reputed SEO agencies like Stan Ventures don’t go with guarantees and in addition to that sensitizes the clients that the results might take few months or even years depending upon the goals set.

SEO Services that claim to guarantee first page rankings in 30-day or promise #1 position on Google results within 15 days are nothing but scams!Period.

Such offers can lure at least a few unsuspecting customers into investing, but in reality, this is a red flag that indicates you’ve approached the wrong SEO agency.

Keep reading to know why you should strictly maintain distance from agencies offering SEO guarantee and what you should look for instead.

What are guaranteed SEO services? 

As the name suggests, guaranteed SEO services are those that promise specific SEO results, such as a particular percentage of increase in traffic in a month or a specific position on Google SERP.

As convincing as it may sound when you interact with such agencies, if you think logically, it is an impossible feat.

Here’s why:

You cannot control how Google ranks your site. SEO agencies do their best to understand the algorithms laid out by Google and make changes to a site in the hope of improving its ranking on SERP.

A trusted SEO agency should extend its SEO guarantees only on its quality of services, such as updating its clients about the SEO progress from time to time, ensuring that the tasks are completed by the deadline, responding to client queries on time, and most importantly use the latest SEO best practices to speed up the results.

Any agency that is solely focused on getting customers through false advertising of guaranteed SEO results should be avoided at all costs.

Why should you avoid companies that offer SEO guarantee?

Every business dreams of ranking on the first page of SERP. When an SEO agency claims to bring you the same, that too in a matter of weeks or months, it may give you a sense of deja vu.

Choosing SEO service providers that offer guaranteed SEO services comes with significant risks. It can hurt your ranking as well as reputation.

In this section, we’ll try to understand the possible risks of choosing companies that offer SEO guarantees.

1. Search engines alert against guaranteed SEO services

One of the primary reasons to avoid agencies offering SEO guarantee is because Google, the search engine giant itself, warns people against working with agencies that promise guaranteed SEO rankings.

The Beginner’s SEO documentation by Google says that your prospective SEO should be able to give you an estimate of improvement. If someone gives you SEO guarantees that their optimization efforts will help you earn a ranking on the first page of Google, find someone else to do the SEO for your site.

2. You are not in a position to guarantee something that’s beyond your control

SEO agencies cannot control search engine rankings directly. Therefore, making big claims about things that are hardly in control of the agency is definitely not worth listening to.

Nobody outside Google (even people inside) knows exactly what goes behind different algorithms. SEOs have only been able to uncover a little through years of research. The algorithm keeps changing from time to time as Google strives to improve user experience.

According to Google Search Advocate John Mueller, search is never guaranteed. Even with its Indexing API, only specific types of content, such as live streams and job postings gets indexed.

Sites need to be worthy to be indexed; therefore, the site owner can increase the likelihood that Google indexes its pages quickly by making their website more valuable, said Mueller.

He suggests all website owners make valuable changes to their sites so that Google understands that there’s new content available.

The more easily findable and valuable new website content is, the more likely Google will be able to pick it up quickly. For example, linking to new content on your website from the home page can help Google discover it faster.

Additionally, there are many factors that are outside the control of SEO agencies, such as your company’s reputation or the competition, which essentially means how many of your keywords are targeted by other authority websites. If a company’s reputation takes a hit due to poor customer service or substandard products, the SEO ranking can also dip.

This doesn’t mean SEOs cannot help improve your website rankings. Competent SEO agencies can even bring you better results than estimated, but even the best cannot manipulate SERP rankings at any cost and bring your site to the first page or even top three positions in a short period of time.

3. Guaranteed SEO services may involve black-hat tactics 

Many companies that offer guaranteed SEO placements resort to black-hat strategies – a set of practices that are condemned by Google. Black hat techniques are tricks to rank higher on search engines through unfair means. If found by Google, it can lead to severe penalties.

Black-hat SEO tactics are a thing of the past. 15 years ago, you could’ve easily fooled Google’s algorithm and made your way up to the first page of the SERP 15 years back. Nowadays, the algorithms are comparatively smarter, and you’re likely to get caught resulting, in a drop in website ranking or even a complete delisting from Google’s index.

Even if a black-hat SEO company can deceive Google and improve your rankings quickly, you’ll quickly lose them as soon as it comes into Google’s radar, and depending upon the severity of the action, Google may decide to penalize the site by slapping a manual action.

4. Guaranteed SEO may provide limited benefits

Agencies that offer guaranteed SEO placements often have tricky conditions in their agreement that make them unaccountable if there is a dip in the rankings or traffic.

For example, many SEO companies insist on targeting keywords for you instead of you telling them which keywords to target. This is because such agencies will target keywords that have less competition to rank, and most of the time, such keywords are not worth ranking for your business. If you agree to go with the keywords suggested by such agencies, you may soon notice a lack of qualified traffic to your site.

What a few others do is take the initial consultation fee and then put minimal or no effort into achieving the promised results. In that case, even if they have to let go of the promised amount for their services, they still have your consultation fee without any effort. Moreover, it hardly matters if they lose a client because they’d go to any extent to make big SEO promises and extort money from unsuspecting clients.

Here at Stan Ventures, we offer the initial audit absolutely free of charge because there is no point kick-starting a conversation without knowing what’s the current state of a website. Also, we don’t follow a templated approach and understand that you have a unique requirement.

5. One-size-fits-all strategies don’t work

SEO is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Depending on your industry, keyword competitiveness, and several other factors, the strategy will vary.

If an agency offers the same SEO guarantee to all businesses without understanding its unique requirements, then you are just falling for a cookie-cutting strategy.

For the best results, you need to get in touch with an SEO agency that specializes in offering customized strategies for its clients.

6. The wrong SEO tactics can hurt your business

Given that SEO comes with a risk, isn’t it possible to switch to another agency when you realize that the agency is backtracking on the SEO guarantees?

Yes, you can move to a different agency anytime if you are not satisfied with your current SEO agency, but if you work with an SEO agency that uses black-hat SEO tactics, the time it may take to recover from the damages could be very expensive and time-consuming.

Working with the wrong agency can cause irreparable damage to your business. Your ranking may suffer for a long time and reach way below your current ranking. You should always stay away from agencies that try to lock you in with their contract for a long period.

How should you choose an SEO agency?

If you are to avoid SEO agencies offering SEO guarantees, then what type of agencies should you go for?

You should look at the following features in an SEO agency to ensure that you get favorable results.

1. Knowledge

If your SEO agency is willing to answer every question you have for them about their services, then it is a sign that you are working with the right agency.

If they are open to discussing the tactics they’ll use to improve your SEO, it’s evident that they’ll be ideal for your business needs.

When you talk to an SEO agency, talk about SEO in general and try to understand their approach on the subject.

If their response doesn’t give you a positive vibe to partner with them, find another agency to work with.

Another way to gauge the knowledge of an agency is by looking at the blogs they write. Check if they are keeping abreast with the latest SEO updates and techniques like how we do here at Stan Ventures.

2. Custom strategies and goal alignment

Any good SEO agency will be ready to customize its SEO strategy based on your business’s unique requirements.

Any agency that uses cookie-cutting strategies in SEO will reap substandard results or much worse.

A professional agency will learn about your company in detail, understand its requirements, and then suggest a custom strategy that aligns with the company’s goals and objectives.

3. Clear explanation for quick decision-making

In addition to offering custom SEO strategies, an SEO agency should be able to justify them using data-backed explanations.

If the SEO agency cannot justify its course of action with proper data, it can be a cause of concern for you.

This either means that they are unclear about the exact benefits their strategy can bring for your business, or they have very limited knowledge about them.

4. Result tracking and reporting

Professional SEO agencies will provide you with regular reports with result tracking to help you understand the SEO progress.

If an agency denies offering you regular reports, better avoid it. You also need to ensure that the agencies that do offer timely reports to their clients are very detailed in nature and can be understood easily.

5. Experience

Any SEO agency that has been around for a long time will have a better understanding of the  SEO industry than any new agency.

Older agencies will also have more experience of working with different clients and will be better at client handling than most new agencies.

If an agency doesn’t have the experience of working with a client like you, there’s no need to reconsider, provided they know SEO well and how it can benefit your site.

Stan Ventures has been helping clients achieve SEO success for more than a decade and we have a diverse client base.

So, if you are counting on experience, there is no better SEO agency we can recommend than Stan Ventures.

6. Reviews and testimonials

Reviews and testimonials are proof of an agency’s hard work and determination. If you are confused about finalizing between multiple agencies, consider their online reviews and testimonials before confirming.

You can also get in touch with past clients and ask them about their experience with the agency in detail.

Any awards or accolades received by the agency for its service is an added feather to the cap.

7. Case studies 

An agency’s case studies give you better clarity about the work they do and how experienced they are in accomplishing the same. The case studies are proof of an agency’s past performances.

What Can You Expect from A Reputable SEO Agency?

A reputable agency will try to offer you more than it promises in terms of service and commitment. They will not promise you any SEO guarantee but will try to deliver maximum results for the effort they put in.

Here are ten prime qualities of a reputable SEO agency:

• Realistic SEO deadlines (not too early, not too late)
• SEO strategies aligned with your business KPIs
• Clear communication, no fillers
• Long term and sustainable SEO strategy
• Transparent SEO reports
• 24X7 access to keyword reporting and tracking tool
• A collaborative team
• A portfolio of successful projects handled previously
• Experience of working across industries
• High-quality yet affordable SEO services 
• Expect absolute zero SEO guarantee

SEO Services From Stan Ventures

Your search for an experienced and trustworthy SEO agency ends at Stan Ventures.

We’re an Indo-American SEO agency bringing you the best of both worlds: Indian SEO talents coupled with American content expertise.

We aim at providing exceptional SEO services at affordable rates. When you choose us as your SEO agency, we will assign a dedicated account manager for you who will be your point of contact for anything related to SEO.

The only SEO guarantee that we offer you is the quality of the services we provide to help you rank higher on the first page of Google. If you are unhappy with the quality, we are ready to refund the money back.

Our agency will chalk out a custom SEO plan for your business and get your approval on the same before beginning to implement it on your website. We’ll consult with you every step of the way before making any changes to your website.

We’ll be more than happy to run you through our entire SEO strategy and send you timely reports and updates to ensure that you are on the same page as us. All our SEO strategies are backed by strong research data. We don’t believe in shortcuts when it comes to implementing SEO for your business.

Still wondering where to begin? Contact us today to explore endless possibilities for your business with our fully managed SEO services.

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