Things a SEO Should Never Say

As a business owner you need to ensure that your investments are wise ones. This means that they result in a positive return in a reasonable time period. SEO salesmen know this, and its why a lot of them will tell you things to make you feel warm and fuzzy, but which actually hold little to no truth. The reality is that good SEO is a process; it is not like a radio spot or a newspaper add where you invest big money up front with a  the expectation of a certain, immediate result.

Good SEO is about establishing your businesses online presence and increasing your findability by building quality, useful content and, in-so-doing, a trusted and respected online reputation. There is no reason that with good SEO work you can’t begin seeing a return on your investment within a few months of beginning your campaign. However, when you are told by a soliciting SEO anything other than this reality, beware; it could cost you a lot more than your investment in the long run. Below are a few things a legitimate SEO would never say. If you hear these things, run and hide!

“I can make you rank for Google”

Here at Ethical SEO we get told this multiple times per day via spam coming though our website. This kind of solicitation typically comes from over-seas “SEO Companies” (a guy in his basement with a computer and spam software). The abiguity of the statement should raise red flags; do they mean they can make your site rank on Google? Or do they mean they will make your site rank for the keyword “Google”? Either way, if you give someone who tells you this your money, what you can expect is an increase of a few ranks for your targeted keyword in the short term. In the long run, your online image will suffer and your investment will have been wasted.

“We would love to work with you…just sign this contract”

Any SEO company that requires its clients  to sign a contract does so because 1) they are unable to effectively set expectations and build a trust based relationship and 2) they are not confident in their ability to deliver results. All business partnerships should be based on results.

“We Guarantee [ANYTHING]”

At Ethical SEO, we know that we are good at what we do, and we go into every project with complete confidence that we will deliver. We also know that SEO results are not something that can or should ever come with a guarantee. The simple fact is that search engine rankings depend on the search engines. It is a SEO’s job to influence how they rank a given site for a given set of keywords; but all they can do is influence those rankings. No SEO is in control of search results, and thus, results can and should never be guaranteed.