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Here is another reason why you will not get a ranking guarantee from SweetWater SEO…
In order to get your business as a client I could guarantee you a Top 3 ranking because that is important to you and it gets you to pay for ranking services. But how well does it work out for me if I cannot get you any higher than say #5 or even #4? If you are in a market where a competitor has a lot of money to spend on online marketing, out ranking him may take a while or not happen at all. As the client, you would likely not be happy that you were promised one thing, but got something else, right?
While getting to #4 or #5 on the first page can have a definite, positive impact on your business, the “Top 3″ guarantee was not met. Ultimately this is what will stand out to you. I doubt you would refer SweetWater SEO to other businesses who could use our services if you felt you did not get what was promised. That is not a situation we want.
“First page visibility” is not necessarily the same as a “Top 10 Ranking”
If you have done any kind of research into getting a website or improving your search ranking, you may have learned that you can pay your way onto the first page.
This is true.
You can buy first page visibility, but visibility is different than a search result ranking.
Getting this visibility on the first page this way means having a paid ad pop up (they are located at the top & on the right hand side of the search results page), not having a search engine ranking. To get there you just need to be willing to pay whatever the going rate is for your ad to appear. If you have the budget, then you can pay your way onto the first page.
And there is nothing wrong with using this strategy because it can drive very targeted traffic to your website.
That’s the good news.
There is a downside, though.
Once you stop paying, your ad is no longer shown, so any traffic you were getting from your ad immediately goes away. This is no different than other types of paid advertising (newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc.).
For a more-permanent place online, you need to have your site found organically in the search results. By optimizing your site and utilizing other web properties that the search engines will also include in rankings, you can get on the first page within the search results and not have to pay every time someone clicks your link.
This is not to say you should avoid paid ads. If you can afford it, it is another way to get traffic, but it should be added after you take care of optimizing your site.
There are “SEO consultants” who will guarantee you high ranking or say something vague like they will get you first page visibility in Google. This is, at best, misleading.
You should avoid falling for that sales pitch.
Here is an example:
A while back I had to have some work done at my home. The contractor doing the work was also the owner of the business. He asked what I do since I work from home. When I told him that I help make small businesses easy to find in the search engines, he mentioned that he had recently been cold-called by a guy who does the same thing. For a monthly fee this guy promised a Top 3 ranking in Google.
If the guy who called him were able to guarantee that kind of a ranking, he could just put up his own money-making affiliate sites and make far more each day from each of them than he was charging monthly for his SEO services.
What You Should Expect (Demand) of Your SEO Consultant
- Target the keywords that your customers use when they do an online search
- Include proper content so the search engines know what your site is about
- Optimize your site so it can be found when your customers search
- Avoid any appearance of trying to trick the search engines
If your site gets a high ranking because the system was “tricked”, it will not last very long and it will not end well for you. Eventually the search engines will figure it out and your site will either be dropped many pages in the rankings or be banned, never to be seen again. Obviously this is just as bad as not even being online, but it cost you a lot of money to get there.
If your current online presence is less than you would like it to be, please contact SweetWater SEO today so you can get on top of it before your competition does.