Recently I have received several calls from search engine optimization (“SEO”) companies. They all claimed that for a small fee, they could guarantee that my website would show up on the first search-result page, or even within the top 5 positions.

Don’t be fooled. There are no SEO guarantees.

Google and other search engines utilize a complex set of rules and factors to determine the ranking of the sites shown on the result page. The factors and rules, while they can be approximated by industry experts, are jealously guarded as trade secrets.

Under these rules, different input keywords will lead to different results. For example, using the keywords “Toronto Family Law” and “Family Law Lawyer Toronto” will generate considerably different results. While it’s true that sites with high traffic volumes may appear under both inquiries, the rankings will likely differ.

The IP address of your computer may also be a factor. Local results are usually shown more prominently than foreign ones.

Most search engine companies like Google and Yahoo! know that the SEO industry is perpetually deducing its rules and factors. Therefore, the engines constantly change their factors and rules, perhaps by assigning different weight to different factors by introducing new ones and retiring old ones.

Hence, anyone who can “guarantee” that your site will rank within the first search-results page is unlikely to be able to keep their promises for long.

What are you going to do when they can no longer keep their promises? If the companies are located outside Ontario and have few or no assets here, you are likely left without any meaningful recourse.

Be wary of anyone who offers you SEO “guarantees.”