Offering guarantees to clients

on rankings, performance or anything

[fom2001uk]

I've never offered guarantees on rankings and never will, but I've heard some consultants who guarantee not to charge a client if and when their site doesn't rank on the first page in any given month. I can see the appeal of this policy from the client's point of view, assuming they're a long-term client and the consultant is on a monthly retainer for SEM/SEO work.

Does anyone else offer such guarantees or any other kind of guarantees?

For example, I'm happy to guarantee that I won't charge for a directory listing (say Dmoz for example) until/unless I obtain it.

Okay it's not the same thing as the rankings issue, but it's a guarantee of sorts, and it gives the client
a bit of reassurance IMO.

I'd be interested in the views here.

[larryhatch]

A lawyer I once knew had a stock answer for such questions:
"I don't have a crystal ball." -Larry

[pageoneresults]

There are no real guarantees in this industry. With PPC, you can assure the client that they may remain in positions 1 through 3 (depending on how you have your campaigns set up). But even then, that is not a sure thing.

If a consumer came to me and asked me what I thought of ABC Company who offers guaranteed search engine positions, I'd tell them to pass on the offer and look for someone else. From my perspective, guarantees in this industry are ploys. They are designed to instill a false sense of security in the unsuspecting consumer.

Performance Based Pricing and Guarantees

In today's marketplace, offering a PBP model is like building a house of cards. If the site is new, a PBP model is out of the question unless of course the client is prepared to spend some money on paid advertising and/or the client is prepared to take some risks that they would be better off not taking.