You’re in a meeting. The agency rep sits across the table from you, leans in close and with a big smile tells you your site will be number one on Google “just a few days… maybe a couple of weeks.” It sounds great. Too good to be true, actually. Because it is.
If someone is promising you guarantees with SEO, a red flag should be going off. It’s not that the whole world is against you. The fact is, no SEO agency can honestly guarantee rankings. Not really. Promises like that should immediately make you question whether the agency has a real understanding of how search works (or if they’re just plain selling you a bill of goods).
A legitimate agency can make a lot of promises and stand behind all of them. We can base our strategy on research, not guesswork. We can do the unsexy work of optimising your site, fixing technical issues, refining content, building authority and tracking what’s really making a difference. We can measure the results, course correct if we have to, and keep pushing forward.
But a legitimate agency won’t take a look at Google (a moving target with thousands of variables) and say “Yep, number one at 3 p.m. on the 15th. Don’t you worry.” Because it just doesn’t work like that. Google changes its mind. Sometimes for very good reasons. Sometimes for reasons that nobody can completely understand.
SEO isn’t magic. It’s not a game or a slot machine you can jack with if you pull the right lever in just the right way. SEO takes time. Slow and steady. You improve your content. You make your site faster. You fix the usability issues that make visitors give up. You build authority with trustworthy backlinks. You build a reputation that people trust. And then, over time: the prize. Organic traffic. Visibility. Visitors who want what you have.
It doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s real. And really. That’s way more valuable than a “hot button” guarantee that could never be true in the first place.
Ok then, what are “Guaranteed SEO Services”?
The name says it all really, an SEO agency (or sometimes just a consultant) offering very specific results; Google #1 ranking, X amount of traffic, and even a refund if they fail to deliver. It sounds almost too good to be true doesn’t it? Almost like some kind of certainty in an otherwise uncertain world.
The thing is though, Google’s algorithms change. Competitors and markets adjust, algorithms update without warning… anyone that promises to guarantee you the number one position, no matter what, is either rolling a very large dice… or conveniently forgetting to mention the small print.
Translation: SEO Guarantees are generally a load of rubbish, in the long term, SEO success is achieved by consistent, considered work.
What is SEO?
SEO – Search Engine Optimization. To put it simply, SEO is a range of techniques that help your website rank higher on search engines, so that it’s easy to find and attracts as much (read: relevant) traffic as possible.
This includes both on-page and off-page work, the first referring to all the content, structure, and technical aspects of your site, and the second mostly to building a good reputation with links from other sources.
In most cases, the first step is to audit the website (SEO audit) and identify all existing issues in terms of SEO, which should be fixed before any other work. The audit is a comprehensive analysis of all the technical issues and opportunities to rank better on search engines, including broken links, slow pages, etc.
In general, SEO is about acquiring organic traffic (traffic which is not paid for), being found by the people who matter and staying found.
Guaranteed SEO Services – Explained
SEO services with a guarantee (high Google ranking, high traffic, measurable growth, refund and similar) is basically an advertising copy which works (still).
An agency says they’ll get you to the top of Google, they’ll bring thousands of visitors to your site and provide you with growth to measure (or money back!) And people fall for it. We all do. It’s the “risk-free” growth, all in, just start.
Sounds too good to be true? It is. A huge, capital-s capitalized lie.
SEO is a long-term, immeasurably complex process in which you only control a part of the equation, at best. Google’s algorithm has 200+ ranking factors, 500+ updates a year, and is in a constant state of flux.
As a result, every variable which is out of your team’s control (SEO agency, if we’re being specific) could change the course of a campaign entirely. I’ve had clients who were looking for SEO services, saw a website at the top of Google and signed a contract in seconds.
In their defense, Google’s number 1 page doesn’t carry any SEO value, it’s just generic marketing and at least I was able to prevent a blackhat SEO campaign.
For reference, Ahrefs 2023 case study shows that a year is more than enough for 94.3% of pages to NOT reach the top 10. Can you find a statistic which would support your SEO provider’s “promises”?
SEO is a strategy, a commitment, and a process that requires time, work, and flexibility, not miracles. If someone claims otherwise, they are not offering a service, they are selling dreams.
SEO Guarantees: Why “Top Rankings” Is Never a Sure Thing
SEO Guarantee Exposed – Ok, let’s get one thing straight: no good SEO agency will ever guarantee you a #1 ranking on Google. In a week, a month, or even a year. SEO is not a vending machine. You can’t put money in and expect to come out on page one. It doesn’t work that way.
Google’s algorithm is, let’s just say, complex. More than 200 ranking factors. Regular algorithm updates. Competitors. Customer behavior. An endless list of variables make it a moving target. Google’s latest algorithm update is called the Core Update, but this isn’t the first update and it definitely won’t be the last. The result? Rankings are anything but predictable.
I’ve seen it too many times. A client who was lured in by an agency that can guarantee “#1 in 30 days” for the search phrase “Movers in Cape Town,” comes in and places their order. At the end of three months, their ad is still on page three. They’re over budget. Disappointed. Angry. Lesson learned, the hard way.
Here are the cold, hard facts: a 2023 Ahrefs analysis of over 5 billion Google searches and nearly 150 billion clicks found that only 0.3% of pages achieved a top position during a one-month window. Most sites take at least 6 to 12 months to make it into the top 10.
As SparkToro co-founder Rand Fishkin said, “the only people who can promise rankings are either absurdly naive or just being deceptive.”
8 Reasons why an SEO Agency cannot promise results:
1. Google’s Algorithm Is… a Lot
Google doesn’t rank websites with a couple of simple “does-this-or-not” checks. It uses hundreds of signals across technical SEO, content, backlinks, site speed, user behavior, and a whole bunch of other things nobody outside of Google fully understands. And just when you think you’ve figured it out, Google changes the rules. Literally.
They push small updates almost daily and larger “shake-the-ground” updates a few times a year.
Google’s March 2024 Update wasn’t a single update; it was a series of updates as part of a large-scale content crackdown. Google’s official statement for this update is that the objective was to “eliminate as much low-quality, recycled, and unhelpful content from our Search results as possible”. In the early stages of the update, Google estimated that the update (combined with all changes from 2023) would result in a 40% reduction in this content. After rollout was finished, Google revised this to 45% – nearly half of the low-value content in existence.
2. Your Competitors Aren’t Exactly Relaxing
SEO doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The guy down the street from you—or ten other competitors across the world—may be doubling down on their own SEO efforts even while you have yours perfect and polished. I’ve seen companies reverse engineer each others’ tactics in as little as a few weeks with tools like Ahrefs.
To be honest, it’s not even a secret at this point. About 54% of companies admit to basing their link building and ranking opportunities off of competitor analysis, with backlink spying quickly becoming an industry pastime. So if somebody tells you they can guarantee results… well, they’re conveniently leaving out the fact that your competitors have a say too.
3. The Time
SEO is a time investment. Actual time. It’s something I realised the hard way back at the start of my career (around 15 years ago) when I was obsessed with all things “fast.” I had a client at the time who had very little patience. This led us to churn out content at a breakneck speed. It looked okay on the outside, but you could tell Google didn’t like it.
The rankings initially started to crawl up and we thought we were onto something. Then the traffic evaporated. It came to nothing after a small peak. That was the wake-up call I needed.
A few years later I was reading an Ahrefs study that found around 75% of pages in the top 10 rankings were older than two years. I realised why the client’s page was flatlining. This is what Google was rewarding. Slow, steady and age over hasty attempts at climbing the ladder.
Now with my current clients I’m always upfront about the fact that you need at least a few months of solid work before SEO really reveals itself. It doesn’t just flip a switch and you suddenly get loads of traffic.
There’s a campaign I still think about from a few years ago. It was with a mid-sized eCommerce company I worked with back in 2021. The client created good content, improved the site’s technical structure and built good, relevant backlinks—but the pages that eventually started performing the best were the oldest pages. And I mean this in terms of years, not weeks or months. At around the 12-month mark is when you could really see things picking up. And at 18 months, their top-10 keywords increased from 12 to 48. Organic traffic went up around 220% overall.
It wasn’t sexy. It didn’t happen overnight. But it was authentic and it stuck.
Truthfully, there’s something about a site slowly but surely increasing its organic performance, especially without paid ads to prop it up, that I still find deeply rewarding in SEO. It just feels earned.
4. Rankings Respond To User Behavior
Google’s placing a ton of emphasis on user behaviour. Not what you want them to do. Actual behaviour: the time spent, whether they clicked your result in the first place, if they bounced back to the SERP. That stuff influences your rankings.
Which is fair, because there’s only so much to do with your site that’s in your control. If your content sucks and people are bailing on you, no amount of technical wizardry is going to save you from a low SERP rank. And I’ve seen it many times—SEO that’s flawless from a technical perspective but just doesn’t say anything meaningful to the user.
Backlinko published a 2022 research that corroborates with the claim that time on site can give you an edge: average-dwell pages ranked highest. Not a shocker, but a good reminder that Google isn’t just scanning code, it’s looking at your visitors.
5. Trends change search demand
I’ve become particularly acutely aware of just how much search demand can turn on a dime over the past few years. In as short a time as a month, the whole world can feel like it shifts. You don’t keep up, you fall behind.
The most memorable example was, of course, early 2020. I was working SEO for a health and wellness site. And then the world imploded. The pandemic hit, and in the space of a week or two, we were watching nearly every second search be for face masks or hand sanitizer. Face masks was surging—Google Trends showed it increasing by nearly 50% in that period. It was insane. But there was opportunity as well.
We got some product pages together, did some optimizing on our content, and pretty much overnight the site went up roughly 30% in organic traffic that first month. Fantastic! Except that it didn’t last.
Mask demand was skyrocketing, sure. But this was still early in the pandemic, and Google Trends later showed the decline was just as steep as the increase. By 2022, search volume had fallen back to nearly zero. Sites that were built solely on that boom cratered.
We had to adapt. We needed to make the site valuable in the long run, not just chase a search term because it was on fire in the present. We started building content on broader topics, more evergreen problems that people would care about in the future even after masks stopped being the cultural obsession. Home wellness, healthy living, those sorts of things. And it worked. After the mask craze ended, we were able to maintain around 3,800 organic visitors per month.
The big lesson for me there was this: You have to be on two tracks at once. Ride it while it’s happening, but have a longer-term content strategy to support you when the trend ends. Otherwise your traffic graph looks like an EKG.
6. Your Website’s Foundation Matters
One thing that people don’t often think about is that an SEO agency inherits the mess that already exists on your website. And, let’s be real, some sites come with… “character.” Slow load speeds. Clunky mobile designs. Sparse content. You name it.
Google’s Page Experience Update only made this more critical. Anything that loads slower than ~2.5 seconds is effectively getting pushed down the rankings, according to the data from Web.dev. And these things take time (and usually some budget) to fix.
The reality is, rankings are often determined more by how strong the foundation is (or isn’t) than any clever tactics you employ. Results won’t last if the foundation isn’t there.
An agency inherits your site’s existing issues. This includes things like slow loading times, poor mobile optimization, or thin content. Google’s Page Experience Update uses a 2.5-second threshold as the benchmark for a “good” user experience metric called Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which is a key component of the Page Experience Update.
7. Third-Party Platforms Play a Role
It’s possible for backlinks from high-quality sites to really boost your rankings—but there’s one little thing: no agency can force another website to link to you. Google has repeatedly emphasized the importance of natural link-building and connections that are earned through high-quality content and genuine relationships.
It’s the white-hat way of building links. It works, just very slowly. Unpredictably. And, without doubt, it’s under the complete control of third-party websites.
Buying links is a common workaround that some agencies use. I’ve seen it a lot in my time as a digital marketer, and it’s not a strategy I would ever get involved with. Yes, it may work for a while, but, if you get penalized by Google, you can lose all that work in a matter of seconds.
The problem is, it’s so tempting for agencies and clients to want a quick result. 74.3% of professional link builders surveyed admitted to paying for links, despite Google’s clear warning that it shouldn’t be done. And, in reality, very few sites experience a genuine, long-term result. The risk is just so high compared to the return.
8. Guarantees Breach Google’s Guidelines
I made this mistake early on in my SEO career. I had a client who insisted I give them a guarantee for a #1 ranking for a high-competition keyword. I optimized every piece of content on their site, submitted high DA backlinks, I even fixed any technical issues on the website. But the rankings didn’t budge. Months went by and, for whatever reason, that keyword never reached the top spot.
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines are specific about why making these kinds of promises is a bad idea: they are designed to protect websites from disingenuous practices that could lead to a penalty.
The client did see an improvement in rankings, which resulted in a 25% increase in organic traffic and their target keywords rose 15 positions, but they weren’t happy and left after six months. I paid the ultimate price and learned the lesson.
The point is, SEO agencies that try to make guarantees are only deceiving their clients. SEO success can’t be guaranteed. It can only be achieved with consistent, analytical work. In the long run, the right approach, that is honest and patient, always outperforms the wrong approach.
SEO Agency Promises You Can Trust (And Get!)
If you’re looking for a direct answer, it’s simple. I can’t be. Even a world class/stellar SEO agency won’t be able to “put you on the first page of Google.” But something else? I can and will promise that: the agency is putting in work, strategy, and metrics in place so they’re tracking progress over time, not looking for shortcuts. Patience is part of the formula.
1. A Custom, Data-Backed Strategy
Your business is not a cookie-cutter one, so your SEO strategy shouldn’t be either. The first thing any SEO agency should do is to map out a campaign for you based on your goals. Want more brand awareness? Leads? eCommerce conversions?
Whatever the target, your strategy is most likely to include an audit of your site, competitive analysis and keyword research for target terms (Ahrefs and SEMrush have great tools to make this process more efficient).
I worked with a small retailer back in 2024, helping them improve organic traffic by 50% within 6 months by targeting long-tail keywords, creating content around search intent, and applying a consistent outreach with smart targeting. All of it is about what Ann Smarty from Internet Marketing Ninjas points out: “Getting linked and mentioned helps on many levels—not just rankings, of course.”
2. Enhanced Brand Visibility
SEO is not just about ranking, it is about visibility. In other words, it’s about being found when your potential customers are searching.
I have had many clients that never ranked first in Google, but still managed to have an impressive amount of visibility because they leveraged featured snippets, local map pack, or the “People Also Ask” boxes.
In one particular case, I had a local home service provider client who updated their Google Business Profile and on-page FAQ on their website to better target long-tail keywords that Google users were searching for. In three months, they managed to rank in the local pack for five intent-driven keywords and even got a featured snippet on one of their service pages. Organic was averaging between 5–7, but their overall impressions increased by 40%, and they started receiving a significant amount of calls directly from their Google search.
I always get a chuckle out of that campaign, because one thing it reminded me of is that your brand doesn’t have to rank number one to be sticky. It’s about being seen when your potential customers are searching and appearing in the right places.
The more your users notice your brand, page, or business address popping up, the more likely they are to remember you, and hopefully visit your site, down the road.
3. Transparent Reporting and Tracking Progress
A reliable SEO agency can and will offer transparency in every aspect of their work. You should never feel in the dark about what is happening to your website. A reliable agency offers regular and thorough reporting that shows you the work that has been completed—and what difference it is making.
It’s like shining a light on their work. Reports should be regular and easy to understand, including details such as keyword rankings, organic traffic increases and new backlinks that have been gained. The best reports go one better and allow you to track progress using Google Analytics, Looker Studio or custom dashboards in real time.
The key is not just the numbers on a report, but helping you to understand how your SEO investment is really moving the needle. When you can see the link between effort and results it changes SEO from a concept into something real you can believe in.
4. Faster Site Speed
We get it; a slow, heavy, and chunky website is an eyesore for your users. But more importantly, it also surreptitiously saps the juice from your SEO over time, chipping away at your search rankings and leading to bad brand perception.
A good SEO partner is also an SEO doctor. If needed, they can address the technical issues on your website and make it faster, slicker, and more user-friendly to visit.
What does this mean? It means fixing slow page load times, eliminating mobile usability issues, implementing HTTPS connections, and ensuring everything works well together. The result? A better user experience with less friction that keeps people on your site longer and — let’s be real — taking the actions you want them to.
Google loves it, too. Core Web Vitals, a set of metrics that assess your site’s performance on aspects like page speed and visual stability, have been official ranking factors since 2021. What’s more is that businesses that improve their performance on these aspects generally see lower bounce rates and higher engagement (score!) and as a result, enjoy higher search rankings. Win-win!
5. Content creation that is good
Before even writing this post I was just starting to think that some companies need to re-learn what content is all about. Content is not a separate silo simply to be dropped onto a site. Good agencies and their digital strategy will recognize this and be able to help your brand communicate with material that is useful, interesting and relevant to the needs and wants of your target audience.
This goes for blog posts that are more than “just a blog post” (think tutorials, reviews or other teaching/enlightening posts that have entertainment value), landing pages that both inform and motivate action, and the quietly helpful in-depth resource that builds authority. As with any aspect of online communication, content can build trust, re-engage and move visitors through the next stage of the sales funnel.
We even have some data to prove this point. A study revealed that companies with ten or fewer employees who wrote 11 or more blog posts per month received nearly three times more traffic than those who only published one or two posts a month.
6. Ethical Link-Building Practices
The right links can be a huge help to your online success—if they’re the right kind of links. A good SEO agency will be using white-hat, ethical techniques, focused on value and sustainability, rather than looking for shortcuts that are only good for a few days before coming back to bite you. No link farms, no spammy paid links, no underhanded “tricks” with artificial sites or link wheels. Even if they might help your rankings for a little while, Google can and will penalize you, and your reputation will suffer.
Real results come from slow, steady, intelligent effort. It could be creating well-researched, well-written guest posts for reputable blogs in your industry; it could be contacting site owners to foster relationships; or it could be writing excellent content that will naturally get attention and mentions. The key is, your site should be attracting links because your content is worth linking to, not because you’re buying them. Google’s webmaster guidelines are very clear on this: Google does not like unnatural links.
Google Will Be Watching – One of the first things to look at when you get a quote from an SEO agency is their strategy for building links. That’s what most of this article has been about—there are a lot of easy ways to build links, but the legitimate, sustainable ones take more effort.
Why Should You Be Wary of “Guaranteed” Rankings?
Any agency promising you the #1 spot on Google should be approached with extreme caution. Here are three reasons to be especially wary of these “ranking guarantees”:
- Google Has a Say: Google’s Webmaster Guidelines explicitly state that no one can promise rankings, and agencies who promise otherwise are pretty much just telling you they’re going to use shady tactics.
- Risk of Black-Hat Penalties: Agencies who can “guarantee” you the #1 ranking use spammy tactics, such as link farms and paid links. They might work for a while, but once Google catches them, those months (or years) of work can be wiped out.
- SEO Takes Time: It’s not a “magic bullet”, and most legitimate, effective results take months. Typically, it’s 3-6 months before you see results from an SEO campaign, so any agency who claims otherwise is in the business of selling dreams.
Hire Smarter: 6 Steps to Selecting an SEO Agency
Finding the right SEO agency is an important decision for any business and one we get asked for help with almost daily. These are the questions that help my clients make the smart decision (spoiler: you do not have to spend a fortune):
Ask For Case Studies
Case studies will often showcase an agency’s experience, specific results, and past wins. Do they have quantifiable examples of taking a client’s rankings and/or traffic to the next level? And not just ANY case study: has this agency worked with clients in your industry?
Check the Key Performance Metrics
Stop focusing on arbitrary “#1 rankings”. Instead, scrutinize growth metrics like more traffic from target keywords, increased search result positioning, or simply more sales leads from their SEO efforts.
Demand Transparency
Ask the agency for an audit, content plan, link building strategy, reporting, and make sure their process is clear and the language they use is not marketing fluff. I always say: if they are doing SEO, they should be able to explain how and why.
Be Skeptical of Hard Numbers
Asking any agency for a “guaranteed #1” is wishful thinking. SEO doesn’t work like that, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Look for the agency that will commit to delivering incremental, steady growth.
Get an Agency on Trial
Buy a three-month “introductory” package that usually ranges from R7,000-R15,000 and give it a go. This is often enough time to truly test drive their services and results in the real world. You want to make sure their practices work for your business and you have the opportunity to test that when you only buy a short-term package.
Check Credentials
Do they have Google Analytics certifications, experience using Google Search Console, or knowledge of SEO software tools like Ahrefs? There is so much data involved in smart SEO and their team should know how to measure, analyze, and act on it, instead of just implementing “tactics” they read online.
So, Can an SEO Agency Guarantee Top Rankings on Google?
Long answer: No. Short answer: No. If you’re still reading, the answer is no.
Ok, look. No-one can guarantee rankings because no-one can control how Google’s algorithm works. But a good agency can guarantee that they’ll work consistently and deliver measurable results and wins for you. Traffic spikes, keyword jumps and a healthier, more visible website are all things you can count on.
SEO is not a lottery ticket, it’s a partnership. At EcoSEO we like to think we’re stacking the odds in our client’s favour, not gaming the system.
So if you want to improve your rankings, choose an agency that’s honest, strategic, and result-focused. Because real growth happens with trust, not fairy tales.
What’s your next step? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to know!
FAQ:
Why can’t agencies control my Google rankings?
Google’s algorithm is calculated using over 200+ different factors. Plus there are external factors too like what your competitors are doing and Google’s own algorithm updates. It’s impossible to control 100% of the game– if anyone claims they can, they’re full of it.
What’s a realistic expectation for SEO?
For mid-tier keywords, we typically target top 10 in 3-6 months and for competitive terms, Page 1 in 6-12 months is realistic. (Ahrefs data)
Are performance-based contracts worth it?
Yes, if the KPIs and metrics are clear, measurable and fair.
What’s the best way to spot a scammy SEO agency?
Look out for red flags such as “Guaranteed #1” in their tagline, lack of a clear plan or extremely low rates (R6,000 /month or less). And always read reviews!
Can I sue an SEO agency if they don’t deliver #1?
Unlikely. Unless you have a written contract promising that they will (which most agencies won’t because it’s not possible to guarantee rankings) it’s not something they’ll take seriously.
