Why Can't You Guarantee SEO Results?

Don't results matter?

I would like to talk about a frequently asked question throughout the marketing space that I believe that most people don't take the time to think about the answer. That question is can you guarantee results using digital marketing for your small business?

Now before you answer this question, it's important to understand one undeniable fact. The information you will read on this subject is being written by marketers just like myself, and that our job is to get you to think along our way of thinking. It doesn't necessarily mean one opinion is right or one idea is wrong. What matters is what works best for your business. My goal is to try to get you use a little bit of common sense when approaching this question and then to re-evaluate how you look at the answer.

Now the reality is that whenever you Google this question or any variation of this question in regards to SEO or ranking websites or anything along these lines there is a specific response that states that, no you cannot guarantee results and that you should stay away from any company that does claim to promise results.

Well, today I’d like to challenge that thought process. Let's be honest for a second. Why can't you guarantee results in this day and age utilising digital marketing for your small business? Seriously, if you can’t ensure at least some form of results, then what exactly is a small business owner paying for when they contract an internet marketing company?

Now many years ago Google went on record in stating that no one can guarantee number one rankings, they never explicitly said that you could not guarantee page 1 rankings. As well, they never said that you couldn’t promise improved rankings. In fact, Google teaches a course on how to improve your rankings organically feel free to take a look here.

Now the argument is that there is no possible way to guarantee top rankings and I'm not exactly sure why you cannot.

In fact, I would venture to say that with regards to SEO you can guarantee page 1 rankings, however, what you can't do is guarantee sustained page 1 rankings.

Anyone who understands the process of search engine optimisation or any aspect of digital marketing understands that things regularly change. If you are an SEO agency that is doing your job and that you are continually testing and continually monitoring results, you will see certain trends that you should be following, and if you're following those trends, you should be able to make pretty strong guarantees based on a particular point in time. Now again what you cannot guarantee is how long a webpage will stay ranked, or how long it will take to see rankings increase for a webpage

Now I know I'm going to get a whole lot of abuse for making such a bold claim that you can, in fact, guarantee results in SEO or digital marketing but let's be honest and break things down a little bit further for a second. Take a market that you want to explore. I don't care what business you're in, I don't care what industry, and I don't care how big or small the companies are and look at the top 10 results when you Google whatever phrases associated with each market. Now look at what they were a year ago and look at what they were six months ago and look at what they were three months ago and look at what they are now. Now, wait and see what they are a month from now and look at what they are two months from now.

Now I understand that for you small business owners out there you aren’t tracking your rankings in multiple markets, but I bet you know who is ranking on page one for your target market.

Now what you will realise is there's not a whole lot of changing in these websites that are on page 1 because Google has understood that these pages are doing something predictable and guaranteed and Google wants them to stay in a position that promises to give users the best experience.

So common sense says if you can repeat a similar process to what these ten pages have been doing you can, in fact, guarantee results based on common sense. Right?

Now about every other aspect of digital marketing can you guarantee results. Yes! Once again the reason I say this is because we live in an age of complete data information and analytics we can look at numbers and make logical choices based on what the data tells us.

Now to wrap this thing up a whole lot better in a beautiful big bow for all of you to read if somebody comes in and says I don't have enough people looking at my site can you increase traffic? The answer is yes; I can guarantee that your traffic will increase from working with our digital marketing because we understand how to read data.

Now again, I am positive there are going to be people who are going to read this and still fight to the end by telling people you can’t guarantee results because they have spent years discussing business owners that, no you can’t deal with this business or that business because they guarantee results. They have made a fortune from saying small business owners that companies that promise results are bad news.

I do wonder though why don’t we consider companies that don't guarantee results a problem?

If you can’t ensure results for your clients why exactly are you taking their money? What exactly do you promise them if you do not promise them results? You should be able to guarantee results in any business. If I walk into any company, I expect that company to ensure that they're going to do what they say. There should be a guarantee based on their service, not a promise to try, but a commitment to in fact get results.

Again this information has come from marketers and since “I’ll try my best” Isn’t a feasible sales tactic, what they tell you is anyone that guarantees results is wrong, and that’s just nonsense.

Now let's be clear, even though I stated this earlier I want to make sure that it's clear again, so everybody understands.

The issue is not guaranteeing results; you can ensure results in any aspect of digital marketing. I don't care whether its social media, or whether it’s SEO. I don't care whether it's traffic generation, the lead generation it doesn't matter all aspects of digital marketing can without question be guaranteed, and the process is verifiable to show a guaranteed return on investment.

The real question is the amount of time that it will take to get those results and the amount of time that those results will be maintained primarily in regards to search engine optimisation.

SEO on its own is an entirely different monster to most other aspects of digital marketing because the steps are not as straightforward when it comes to ranking a website. There are multiple ways to improve rankings for a site, and most digital marketers take an entirely different approach when it comes to ranking websites.

From the experience of myself and of many others in the industry the reality is you can see in fact guarantee results sometimes no matter if it's for a small keyword or if it's for a big keyword the truth is you can guarantee a ‘page one’ ranking.

What I believe is that it would be difficult to guarantee a number one ranking. Quite often the top 3-5 websites bounce around each other with none every staying stationary.

I don't think there are any problems in promising a page one ranking. Not in an industry that you've taken the time to research, see what the competition is doing, and can look confidently to say yes based on established practices that Google has proven and repeatedly stated that they are looking for on a website that you can reliably get results.

If you understand competition research and what your competitors are doing you can guarantee page 1 results. I will go further and say, anyone who doesn't promise some results, then that is a company you should probably not contract.

Because that is a company that is just trying to take your money for as long as possible without actually trying to get you results.

In closing, I want to go firmly on the record in stating that you can guarantee results in digital marketing and most cases I believe that an agency should ensure results.

They should back what they do and should be able to prove that their agency is as good as their claims are.

Now while a case study is cute and while being able to state what you've done for past clients is pretty much the standard approach to things the reality is most business owners are smart, and they won't care about those things.

A business owner wants to know what you can do for them individually and what guarantees they have that in giving you money you will get the results. So for you business owners, the next time you're speaking with a marketing agency, and they tell you that they can’t guarantee your results I would suggest that you instead firmly ask them, “then why exactly should I pay you? If you can’t ensure results what good are you?”

I mean let's be honest would you go to a restaurant that told you that they couldn’t make any guarantees on whether there is going to be any food? Or if they told you, they can’t make any promises on if the food will taste good? Is that the type of business that you want to honestly trust with the future of your business?