Why You Can’t Trust Agencies That Guarantee SEO Results

As a top digital marketing agency in Los Angeles, we provide effective digital marketing strategies for small businesses. This has also made us a top SEO Company Los Angeles. That said, we talk with a lot of small businesses in California. One question we are often asked is – Can you trust agencies that guarantee SEO results?   So we thought we would create a blog article and do our best to answer that very question.

We all want performance guarantees with the service providers we use, whether it be your dry cleaner, your maid, your landscaper or your digital marketing agency.  A digital agency that guarantees your business will be on the first page of Google sounds like a no brainer.  You pay them for SEO services, and they promise to deliver a specific outcome.  Seems like nothing can go wrong, right?

Wrong. The truth is, if you’re working with a digital marketing agency that offers guaranteed results, there is a lot that can go wrong, including your business being blacklisted by Google.  A quality SEO Company Los Angeles would never make such lofty claims and we will explain why.

Why an Agency Cant Guarantee First Position in Google?

No agency can guarantee top rankings for search results in Google. It’s that simple and it’s even been stated by Google. There is no gray area here. Google states this in its SEO Starter Guide that “no one can guarantee a #1 ranking” and warns against working with any agency promising guaranteed SEO rankings.

The reason is very simple and logical in that no digital agency, consultant or freelancer has direct influence over Google’s search engine results.

Google’s search engine ranking algorithm is extremely complex and made up of more than 200 known ranking factors, including on-page and off-page factors.  This algorithm is a tightly kept secret amongst employees. Furthermore Google updates its algorithm over 300 times per year to deliver a better experience for searchers.

A top SEO Company Los Angeles understands Google’s ranking algorithm, called Rank Brain.  They will follow Google approved guidelines to put your website in the best position to rank for your services or products. However, the final position that your website lands is completely up to Google (and can even fluctuate depending on algorithm updates, search relevance, and proximity of the person searching).

Why You Should Avoid SEO Agencies That Guarantee Results

SEO agencies that offer a guarantee should be avoided at all costs. These SEO agencies often go directly against Google’s recommendations and try to game the system to get your website higher rankings which are often temporary. Here are four reasons why you can’t trust digital agencies that guarantee SEO results.

1. They Use Black Hat SEO Strategies

This is one of the biggest risks you will run into if you work with an agency that guarantees results.  Black hat SEO techniques are search engine tactics that are designed to manipulate Google’s algorithm to improve a website’s search engine rankings. This type of SEO strategy violates Google’s Webmaster Guidelines because they target search engine algorithms and not user behavior.

Some of the most common black hat SEO techniques include participating in backlink exchanges, hiding keywords, creating duplicate content, buying cheap website traffic or using bots to post comments on blogs.  They are called ‘black hat’ because villains on television typically wear black hats.

The reason these agencies use black hat SEO strategies is because they often bring about temporary results, until Google finds out.  Their client will see a quick uptick for a couple weeks, just long enough for the agency to get paid. Eventually Google catches on and will reprimand such SEO practices which could result in your website being blacklisted by Google – a death sentence if you are a local business.

2. Your Website May Get Penalized By Google

As we mentioned, the biggest risk in using an agency that guarantees results is because they use black hat techniques that will eventually get you caught and penalized from Google. These penalties can range from a web page being taken down or your website being completely removed from Google.

Recovering from a Google penalty is painfully slow and expensive. You’ll have to invest time and money into paying an agency to fix it, then submit a reconsideration request to Google. Once the manual penalty’s been removed, you’ll need to work to regain your position in search results, This process can take months or years, and in some extreme cases, you may never recover and need to start again from scratch with a new website.

3. Your Website Will Rank For Irrelevant Keywords

This is something that many business owners struggle to understand.  If you’re working with an agency that guarantees results, chances are they picked the keywords to rank your site for, not you. This is the key to their sales hook.

They might offer to get you on the first page of Google for the search phrase “Immigration Lawyer Culver City”.  That sounds great if you are an immigration lawyer in Culver City.   But what you don’t know is that search phrase is only typed into Google 10 times per month, an extremely low volume.  The search phrase “Immigration Lawyer Los Angeles” is typed 2400 times per month into Google.  That is where you want your business to appear.  This is by far the biggest trick black hat SEO agencies use to lure clients.

4. Black Hat Agencies Deliver Poor ROI

The goal of our digital marketing agency Los  Angeles is to increase targeted traffic to your website, not just any traffic. Qualified traffic means website visitors that are generally interested and looking for your products or services.  When you bring targeted traffic to your website, you have a higher chance of converting them into leads and sales.  Many black hat agencies guarantee a high volume of traffic coming to your website.  This may look good in your Google Analytics and may even impact your rankings but the ultimate goal is to increase sales and this traffic does not do that.  There are many ways to drive traffic to a website for pennies on the dollar.  It’s a waste of time and your marketing budget to rely on such techniques.

What To Expect From Our SEO Company Los Angeles

The obvious question here is what should you expect from a quality digital agency in terms of SEO services?

Higher Quality Leads
A quality digital marketing agency should improve your page rankings for keywords that are relevant to your business. Over time, this adds up to more qualified traffic coming to your website, high-quality leads ringing your phones, completing your contact forms and signing up for your newsletters.

Long Term Results
The goal of any SEO strategy should be to get you top rankings for your core keywords (products & services) and keep you at the top of those search results.  A reputable digital agency should tell you that it can take anywhere between 2-6 months to see results from an effective SEO strategy. Furthermore when the desired rankings are reached you must continually invest in SEO to keep your business there.  SEO is never-ending marathon not a sprint.

Summary

If you’re ready to achieve sustainable growth with an effective Los Angeles digital marketing agency, then you came to the right place. eMaximize has been at the forefront of Digital Marketing since 2008. We create results driven strategies that truly move the needle for your brand and give you a long lasting competitive advantage.

If you are ready to get started, kindly send us a note or give us a call and we can start your free analysis and show you how eMaximize, a top Los Angeles SEO Company, can significantly increase your revenue, like we do for all our clients!

Thanks For Reading!