Guaranteed Google Listings

How is this possible?

[vincevincevince]

Whilst renewing domains today I was shown an SEO services offer with all the normal submission to 400+ engines, resubmission, keyword research etc. etc. etc. but with one strange new entry Guaranteed Google Listings.

It also guarantees that your site will stay listed for a year.
How is this possible? Surely no company but Google can make such a guarantee? Are they able to un-ban domains?

Spill the beans, whoever knows! The services are offered by a largeish UK domain name registration company...

[McClaw]

Its easy, they just buy adwords ads on your behalf.

Some SEO companies use this same tactic when marketing yahoo listings

Stay FAR away from this company. they are out to get you!

[trillianjedi]

You should know better Vince ;)

Never trust any SEO (no matter who they are) that says they can guarantee you a position in the SERPS.

<Added>As McLaw says, could be AdWords based. Or, as I've often seen, in the smallprint they guarantee to get you ranking for your domain name. All old old tricks.</Added>

TJ

[jdhuk]

It's quite easy to make such a statement. You give me 100 bucks and I guarantee you a Google listing. If not I will refund you in full, what have you got to loose?

I think the "guarantee" is the money back part not the listing, it's made to look like a guaranteed listing when in fact it's not. They are just guarantying your money will be refunded if there is no success.

No one outside of Google can guarantee anything, except a bumpy ride!

It's called taking advantage of new site owners who don't have a clue, that's how I see it anyway.

[vincevincevince]

Its easy, they just buy adwords ads on your behalf.

Isn't that a big risk for them? There is a fixed price for this service - which could easily be burnt up in Adwords in a month, let alone a year. Especially if I apply with www.mesothelioma-layers.foo

Don't worry - I have no intention of hiring them - but I am just amazed by the 'guarantee'. They even use Google's logo with the word 'Guarantee' on a scroll below it.

[briggidere]

very true everyone.

i have been contacted numerous times by people claiming the same thing.

One good way to see what they know is to question their tactics for getting you the listing in the 1st place. Usually the person on the phone has no idea about SEO, just telesales. I think they are always hoping to get hold of someone who doesn't know anything about the search engines so they can take your hard earned £££

briggidere

[larryhatch]

Sure. A guaranteed listing. They get some page to give you one spiderable link.
You get listed in siberia (page 99,000) for sure.
If not they refund (maybe) and sucker in the next rube.

[kaybarella]

i know exactly which company you mean and the scary thing is they dont appear to be talking about ppc.

it is reasonable to expect any website - without any special seo application - will be 'listed' in search engine somewhere on the www from the moment it springs to life (you see banners all over the place claiming someone will submit your site to 1000's of them!). and so it follows that any website will also remain in 'A' search engines index for 12 months...and probably beyond the actual website lifetime.

now, the only 'guarantee' they give relating to a popular engine is the google guarantee. but how hard is it to demonstrate a website showing up in the google index? How many datacentres are there again!

Considering this is exactly the sort of cowboy misleading baloney that reputable forums screeeeeeam to stay away from i'm disappointed that this popular company is going down that road.

It always makes me think of two types. The wet behind the nose developer with limited and new seo knowledge who thinks they have found the 'key', and the scammer who knows they are misleading but wants to cash in nonetheless. I dont think thats a wise move by an established award winning company.

grrr

[McClaw]

--Isn't that a big risk for them? There is a fixed price for this service - which could easily be burnt up in Adwords in a month, let alone a year. Especially if I apply with www.mesothelioma-layers.foo

How these guys normally work, is they will rank you first on your company name (Quite an easy job), and then convince you later that you need to spend more money to rank well for the other search terms. They'll use the extra money for the ads, and if its too expensive they'll walk away, or let you fire them by screwing it up.

They might also threaten / blackmail you with killing your site by posting many links on bad neiberhoods(sp?) if you dont accept their 'price increase'.

[djmick200]

I too seen this and thought to myself "Why are this company going down this road?"

Anyway I went back for another read of what they were offering and the google guarantee was only this part -

"We guarantee that as long as you follow the technical and editorial guidelines from Google we'll get your site listed within 8 weeks – or your money back!"

I also noticed that this was only available on the higher priced options.

I'm tempted to register any old name, throw a few pages up and buy a package to see what they actually do for their money.

The tempation has faded in the short time it took me to type the last paragraph ;-)

IMO it's a gimmick for the naive newcomers to their site.

[kaybarella]

"They might also threaten / blackmail you with killing your site by posting many links on bad neiberhoods(sp?) if you dont accept their 'price increase'. "

Not sure about that or everyone would be doing it to kill competition.

My understanding is links TO a bad link neighbourhood harm; links FROM a bad neighbourhood dont help nor hinder.

[vite_rts]

Erm, they've only said you wold be listed, ,,,, you might be listed no,,, 10000 out of 1,000,000 for your keywords.

Statistically, they're probably safe to give that guarrantee, cos they ain't promising the gadzillions of new users a page one slot alongside

"megaCorp dot com" :)

Cheers

[Quadrille]

Isn't that a big risk for them? There is a fixed price for this service - which could easily be burnt up in Adwords in a month, let alone a year.

.

Not a risk for them - you are paying. If you read their terms and conditions, you'll find the main company activity is deciding which excuse they'll offer for failing to refund your money.

And for the (very) occasional times they actually do what they promise, the second you fail to renew, your site will fall out of sight.

There are plenty of good companes around ... why waste time with a company that has a flashing neon sign saying We Are Not To Be Trusted - For A Second?

[Quadrille]

My understanding is links TO a bad link neighbourhood harm; links FROM a bad neighbourhood dont help nor hinder.

Not quite.

While links to you will very rarely hurt, if they are part of a pattern of spammy links, they can be fatal. That small change in the rules enabled Google to almost wipe out two large, sophisticated link exchange schemes.

With the capacity Google has, even the largest link exchanges are easily dealt with, once Google gets a few member sites identified.

[sunny_kat]

Guys, You are talking about not trusting any SEO company, but the real fact is that most the websites on the internet are promoted by Search Engine Optimizer's only.

I agree with your points to not to trust any company without taking knowledge about their background and client profile.

But at the end of the day a dedicated Search Engine Optimizer can only help you achieve top rankings on the Search Engine's

Thoughts?

[trillianjedi]

Thoughts?

Any SEO claiming to offer "guaranteed" rankings is waving a big red flag saying "don't use us".

TJ

[Quadrille]

caveat emptor - Let The Buyer Beware.

There are plenty of good SEOs around, and plenty of bad - all people are saying, is be careful, and remember that if it sounds too good to be true - like a guaranteed anything - then it usually is too good to be true.

A good SEO will offer a broad and knowledgable service, including design - or at least, design advice. Talk to them; look at their existing clients. And be careful.

There's no 'guaranteed' way to find the best SEO for you - but when you work on your shortlist, start by excluding the ones who promise the Earth - and the ones who have no clue. And the ones who send email spam.

After that, it gets more difficult :)

[edited by: Quadrille at 1:49 pm (utc) on June 27, 2006]

[rj87uk]

Any SEO claiming to offer "guaranteed" rankings is waving a big red flag saying "don't use us".

Average joe has no idea about SEO companies and how Google works. Ive heard people saying "maybe they're in partnership with google?". But we all know the truth...

[ChildeRoland]

There is no shortage of scum bags out there that have no problem with issuing obsurd guarantee's. Stay away from them for sure, although you obviously know that.

[pageoneresults]

Average joe has no idea about SEO companies and how Google works.

Average SEO has no idea about how Google works.

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

It is just one part of one very large equation. There are thousands of consultants/companies still riding the wave and milking it for every last penny. Unfortunately, there are thousands of clients who get caught in the wave.

The only guarantee you can offer is that you'll do the best you can as that is all you can do. And hopefully that will be more than sufficient. ;)

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

When I offer to SEO a site for clients I always place a disclaimer warning them that there is no guarantee. I also tell them that they have found their way to my site because I can usually get results. I find that most sensible people are attracted by this approach.

I also tell them to avoid companies who are guaranteeing results like the plague.

[reseller]

BeeDeeDubbleU

"When I offer to SEO a site for clients I always place a disclaimer warning them that there is no guarantee."

Admire your disclaimer. Very honest approach to SEO!

[pageoneresults]

Very honest approach to SEO!

It's really the only approach. You cannot guarantee that which you have no control over. Even the paid positions.

[jonathannelson]

vincevincevince-

just say no to these types of in-a-box SEO's...save your money, do your own SEO. :)

[netmeg]

I have found that some of these companies that "guarantee" that you are going to show up at the top in Google are actually using their own toolbar, often downloaded in adware, which replaces the actual Google SERPS to anyone who has it installed. Look at the fine print.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

... or I'll do it for you ... with no guarantee :)

Please ... it was just a joke ;)

[petehall]

I like Google's contradictory advice on this matter:

Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings

For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee.

We offer a guaranteed level of service and I don't see anything wrong with this at all.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I don't think we are talking about service level guarantees. We are talking about guaranteed listings but looking at this again it probably needs to be clarified. Did the company just guarantee that your site would be listed in the Google index or did they guarantee a particular position?

[petehall]

Inclusion only!

Nothing wrong with this really.

There will be people that get confused though and think £50 will get them to no1 for 'football' etc.

[Phil_Payne]

Around twice a week I get spam offering me a high SERPs position for my company name. It usually starts "Is [domain name] offline or why can't we find it in Google?"

The morons have obviously never done that search - I am already #1 for the two words in my company name.