SEO guarantees are one of the biggest tools agency sales teams use to turn prospects into clients. But they can range from scams to “puffery” with no substance at all or promise results that are achieved unethically.

For instance, here’s a popular SEO guarantee:

And another possibly too-good-to-be-true guarantee:

Not to mention this oh-so-safe and completely risk-free guarantee offering a “huge amount” of “naturel” backlinks 🙄

Sarcasm aside, I get it.

As a business owner, guarantees like this offer peace of mind that your limited marketing budget won’t be wasted. So, here’s everything you need to know to avoid the risky types of SEO guarantees that are nothing more than thinly veiled scams.

I’ll also share the only type of SEO performance guarantee that’s not a scam so keep your eyes peeled.

In fact, I asked the lovely people at Onyx Legal to help me out, so you could say it’s the only lawyer-approved SEO guarantee I’ve ever come across!

Why you should avoid most guaranteed SEO services

Although there is at least one legitimate option for guaranteed SEO services (that we share below), you really should avoid most like the plague. Here are four reasons why.

1. Rankings cannot be guaranteed, under any circumstances

If this article had a catchphrase it would be “what cannot be controlled, cannot be guaranteed.”

With paid ads, you can spend more to bump your ad to the top of search results instantly. But, SEO rankings are earned, usually over a long period of time.

They are 100% at the discretion of the search engine and no SEO provider can predictably manipulate these. The results can also change overnight if the algorithms change. You can’t throw more money at the problem. SEO simply doesn’t work this way. 

Google warns business owners about this:

Anyone who guarantees rankings is, at best, over-confident in their ability or, at worst, straight-up lying to you.

2. Fast results often mean dangerous or unethical tactics are used

There are no shortcuts to earning SEO results legitimately. SEO is, and has always been, a long-term growth channel that compounds over time.

The most common way people earn short-term results is by using black hat SEO tactics.

These tactics are aimed at manipulating search algorithms to rank content higher. They also often violate search engine policies and can lead to penalties or your site being blacklisted altogether.

In my opinion, business owners who try to minimize their financial risk by using a low-cost, guaranteed SEO service are exposing themselves to far greater risks. Fear of losing money in the short term is a short-sighted way to think about SEO.

For instance, what’s worse?

Scenario A (no SEO guarantee)
You invest in an SEO service without a guarantee. The campaign runs at a loss initially since you don’t start seeing results until month 6. But by month 12, you’ve made your money back and also received a decent return.

Scenario B (with a guarantee)
You invest in an SEO service with a guarantee that you’ll rank on page 1 in 30 days, or you get your money back. Within 30 days you rank on the first page of Google for some keywords (i.e., the guarantee is met). But, a few months later your site is penalized, and you lose all your SEO performance.

Obviously, the answer is scenario B.

For example, here’s a site that has experienced multiple traffic losses until it was eventually penalized in early 2024. It will be very difficult for this site to overcome the penalty and grow.

Most business owners don’t think this far ahead when shopping for SEO so they often pass up the agencies that deliver results similar to scenario A.

In scenario B, since the guarantee has technically been met, there’s no chance you’ll be getting your money back or growing your business. It’s also likely that you need to invest in rebuilding your website on a new domain that has not been penalized by search engines.

So when you hear about guaranteed SEO results being scams, this is why.

Learning how a service provider delivers their service can save you from far bigger risks and greater financial losses in the long run.

3. Guaranteed SEO results probably won’t deliver a return on investment

SEO, just like any other marketing channel, needs to provide a return on investment (ROI) to be effective. You put money in, and you’re supposed to get more money out when it’s done right.

While guaranteed SEO results sound great in theory, when you dig a little deeper it’s often the case that these results are based on:

• Keywords unrelated to your business
• Keywords with very little to no search volume
• Keywords with informational search intent (that won’t deliver leads)

In short, the types of keyword rankings that are guaranteed usually won’t lead to more conversions, can diminish your quality of leads, and won’t deliver an ROI.

The keywords that do grow your business are often more competitive and take longer to rank for. There’s simply no way to shortcut the process, so performance for these keywords likely won’t be guaranteed.

Another consideration is that most SEO guarantees only focus on vanity metrics. Vanity metrics sound good on paper, but they don’t grow your business or allow you to make better decisions.

Rankings won’t feed your family. Neither will traffic.

So, if you’re considering using a guaranteed SEO service provider because you think it’s the best way to see a return on investment, think again if they only guarantee vanity metrics.