SEO guarantee checklist: the red flags, and what a real guarantee spells out

Nine red flags, then a checklist you can hold any agency to, including us. We have marked where we pass, where the answer sits in the contract rather than on the website, and the one row where we currently score badly. An article of this kind is worthless if the company publishing it comes out of it perfect.

1. Nine red flags
2. The checklist
3. Our own answers
4. FAQ

• A guaranteed number one position. Nobody controls the exact position of a result. This is the one Google names in its own guidance.
• No list of phrases before you sign. The guarantee then covers whatever turns out to be easy, which is usually your own company name.
• The agency chooses the phrases alone. Same problem, one step earlier.
• A price before a look. We have seen agencies advertise page one "from $5 a day". A price quoted before anyone has seen your domain is a price for effort, not an outcome.
• "Guaranteed results" with no definition of the result. Traffic? Rankings? Calls? A guarantee that does not name its measure cannot be missed.
• A window that starts nowhere. "In 90 days" means nothing without a start date in the contract.
• No answer to what happens if it is missed. The answer can live in the service agreement rather than on the website, but there has to be one and you should be able to read it before you sign.
• Deliverables that are tactics from 2012. Article spinning, directory submissions in bulk, link wheels. This work was sold for years, and it is why some sites cannot rank now.
• Proof with no name on it. A percentage without a client attached is a number somebody typed.

Nine questions, all answerable in writing by any agency that means it.

• Which phrases does the guarantee cover, and can I see the list before signing?
• Who chooses them?
• What counts as achieved, in words?
• What share of the list is covered?
• Within what window, starting when?
• What was measured before you quoted?
• What happens if you miss it, and where is that written?
• Who does the work, and is anything outsourced?
• Can you show me a named client, in a comparable trade, with dates?

• Which phrases: named in your contract, shown to you before you sign. Pass.
• Who chooses: we propose, you approve before work starts. Pass.
• What counts: the first page of Google. Pass.
• What share: up to half the phrases in the contract, depending on how competitive your market is. Pass, and it is deliberately not "all".
• The window: six months or twelve, set in the agreement. Pass.
• What we measured: domain age, existing backlinks and citations, current authority, and who holds page one today. Pass, and it is why we do not quote before the audit.
• If we miss it: written into your service agreement rather than published here. You can read it before you sign. Partial: we would rather publish it, and that is a decision in front of us.
• Who does the work: all of it in one house, no outsourcing. Pass.
• Named proof with dates: this is the row where we currently score badly. We publish aggregate figures and one case study in depth, and the rest of our client results are being verified client by client before they go back on the site. Until that is finished, hold us to the same standard as everyone else and ask for the name and the date.

How the guarantee works

Can an SEO company guarantee first page rankings?

What page one actually looks like in a local trade

How the guarantee works