Somebody will phone your practice this year and offer guaranteed first page rankings. It is worth understanding exactly why that promise cannot be kept, so the call takes thirty seconds instead of thirty minutes.
Three reasons it is impossible
Nobody controls the ranking system. Google's algorithm is theirs, it changes constantly, and no agency has any privileged access to it. Google itself says plainly that no one can guarantee a ranking.
There is no single result page any more. Results differ by where you are standing, what device you are on, what you searched before, and what Google is testing that week. Two people in the same room can see different results. First page for whom, exactly?
Your competitors are also moving. Ranking is relative. You can do everything right and lose position because somebody else did more, and no contract can stop them.
What the guarantee usually means
Read the wording carefully. A guarantee may be defined in ways that do not match the commercial result you expect.
- Keywords nobody searches. You rank first for affordable conveyancing attorney Durbanville northern suburbs, a phrase whose actual demand has not been established. Ask to see the basis for selecting it.
- Terms you already ranked for. Your own practice name, where visibility may already be established.
- A definition that moves. First page including the map block, the ads, and a directory listing that merely mentions you.
- An escape clause. Read the contract. There is usually a definition of ranking that does most of the work.
The tactic risk
The other way to force short-term ranking is bulk link building from networks the seller controls. This falls within what Google classifies as link spam. It sometimes works for a while. It can also expose the domain to search penalties or manual action. Recovery is not assured on a fixed timetable.
For a practice whose domain is its professional reputation, that is a poor trade for a few months of movement.
What an honest promise sounds like
Not a ranking, but a set of actions and a report on the result. We will fix your technical issues and tell you which ones. We will set your Google Business Profile up properly. We will build pages targeting the terms your clients actually use. We will show you where you moved and where we failed to move you.
Less exciting than guaranteed page one. It has the advantage of being true, and you can tell whether it happened.
Next step: request a free Website Check, or see Baken’s local SEO services.