A survey on online marketing guarantees

Netboost SEO · #1 (**Link to this post**) 24-10-11

These days it seems every SEO company guarantees first page of google. In other words they focus on keyword rank as the key KPI. I have found though that many clients and prospective clients don't really understand the whole 'keyword' and 'ranking' thing...

So a simple question - should I offer a guarantee for:

(A) Ranking - guarantee a top ranking in Google OR
(B) Traffic - guarantee a certain % increase in monthly traffic?

Any thoughts and opinions would be much appreciated!

MsLilyPonds · #2 (**Link to this post**) 24-10-11

I am extremely cynical of SEO companies that guarantee ranking because they'll either charge you insane prices to rank you for a MOTHER of all keywords or they'll guarantee you get to page one for "Banana Rotary Coat Beach" or some other zero search keyword.

So I am in the traffic camp.

I do SEO copywriting, so I am in the conversion camp actually as my role is to find a keyword that will convert, provide the right number of visitors, be obtainable on budget and then also be able to be used in a desirable way on page.

Pete - RAS · #3 (**Link to this post**) 24-10-11

Or a 3rd option to consider. Increase their number of leads/sales from the website by X%.

A lot of people would prefer to see a direct correlation of what their investment (what they are paying you) is going to earn for them and hopefully pay for itself.

If you choose to, it also gives you the option of dabbling in a little of website design and online marketing advice. You aren't just solely restricted to improving their rank on google, which may help you stand out from people who just focus on seo.

Netboost SEO · #4 (**Link to this post**) 25-10-11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete - RAS

Or a 3rd option to consider. Increase their number of leads/sales from the website by X%.

A lot of people would prefer to see a direct correlation of what their investment (what they are paying you) is going to earn for them and hopefully pay for itself.

If you choose to, it also gives you the option of dabbling in a little of website design and online marketing advice. You aren't just solely restricted to improving their rank on google, which may help you stand out from people who just focus on seo.

well the premise of seo is that rankings = more traffic.

Traffic x (conversion rate) = revenue. Therefore by increasing traffic we increase revenue

I was thinking that but I can't really guarantee sales unless the client signs up for conversion rate optimisation as well though... because if their website and/or conversion funnel and/or product is terrible then I may get them a million visitors but it wouldn't help them (actually it would they could make a fortune from selling ads haha)

Pete - RAS · #5 (**Link to this post**) 25-10-11

True, but my thoughts are that the person might be just going to go and buy a heap of dodgey links which results in lots of useless traffic and barely any sales.

Dane Pymble · #6 (**Link to this post**) 25-10-11

I think if conversion optimisation is a separate product then there is your upsell opportunity. I agree with a lot of the posters that increased traffic is not neccesarily money well spent unless there is a corresponding increase in revenue.

I would suggest guaranteeing the traffic then upselling them on the benefits of conversion optimization.

MsLilyPonds · #7 (**Link to this post**) 25-10-11

There are a thousand things that impact on conversion - they are DEFINITELY two separate skills. You would have to work in partnership with a copywriter

NickMorris · #8 (**Link to this post**) 25-10-11

This is a question I've been wondering about myself.

It seems that the best deal for the client is a guaranteed increase in sales but of course, as has been said, it's difficult to make that guarantee without having control over the conversion process as well.

This difficulty has resulted in other guarantees such as ranking and traffic guarantees which are easily abused by service providers because they don't necessarily lead to an increase the sales for the client.

I think for the uninformed client a guarantee of increased rankings or traffic would be enough because these are seen as sort of buzzwords to them but a guarantee of an increase in sales would be understandable by everyone and ultimately be the best deal for everyone.

Perhaps you could put a condition in, something along the lines of 'providing conversion rate remains the same (or increases)'

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A survey on online marketing guarantees