Sooner or later someone will call with an offer. "Sir, we will bring your website on page one of Google in 90 days. Guaranteed. Otherwise money back." It sounds safe. There is even a refund.
Walk away. Not because everyone who says this is dishonest, but because the promise cannot be kept honestly. Here is why, and what to look for instead.
Nobody controls Google's results
Google decides what to show for every search using its own systems, and it adjusts them constantly. It does not sell positions in its ordinary results, and it does not take instructions from agencies. Google's own advice to site owners says plainly that no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google.
So a page-one guarantee is a promise about something the person making it does not control. That leaves only a few ways to "deliver" it.
How page-one guarantees usually get met
The easiest trick is choosing the phrase. They promise page one, then pick a search almost nobody types, something like "best 3 BHK resale broker Vijayanagar 2nd Stage near temple". You may well be on page one for that. So would any site that happened to use those words. It brings you no enquiries, but the monthly report looks wonderful.
Other common patterns:
- Your own business name. You would show up for it anyway, usually within weeks, but it gets counted as their win.
- Paid ads presented as SEO. A result marked "Sponsored" is an advertisement, and it disappears the day the payments stop.
- Bulk links. Hundreds of links bought cheaply from low-quality sites. This is exactly what Google's spam policies target, and it can leave a site worse off than before.
- Screenshots from their office. Results vary by location, device and search history, so a screenshot from one computer proves little.
And the money-back clause usually comes with conditions: a narrow keyword list, a long lock-in, or a definition of "page one" that includes the map box or phrases they chose.
What honest SEO sounds like
Real search work is less exciting to hear about and far more useful to pay for. An honest provider will tell you things like:
- Your own business name should show up within weeks
- Long, specific searches, the ones naming a locality, a budget and a property type, can follow over a few months
- A competitive locality takes six months to a year and needs steady writing
- They cannot promise a position, but they can say exactly what work they will do and how you will both measure it
That timeline is laid out properly in how long it really takes a new property website to rank.
They will also talk about the unglamorous parts: whether Google can actually read your pages, whether each listing has a real description and title, whether the site is fast on a phone, and whether your business details match across the web.
Questions to ask before you pay
Instead of "will I be on page one?", ask:
- Which searches will you work on, and do real buyers actually type them?
- What exactly will you do each month: pages written, fixes made, listings improved?
- Will I have access to my own Google Search Console, so I can see the data myself?
- What happens to the work, and to any links, if I stop paying?
- Do you buy links, and if so, from where?
A good provider answers these directly. Someone who turns vague, or keeps steering back to the guarantee, has told you what you need to know. For questions about the website itself, see ten questions to ask any website provider before you pay.
Hold everyone to the same standard
That includes us. Our position is written down on our getting found page: no promise of page one, no promise of a date, and no claim to put you inside ChatGPT.
This week, pull out any SEO contract or proposal you have signed or been sent. Look for the word "guaranteed", and look at exactly which phrases it covers. Then search those phrases yourself, on your own phone. Ask yourself whether a buyer or tenant would ever type them. If the answer is no, you know what you were being sold.
If the answer is yes and you really are on page one for them, check one more thing: whether the listing that appears is an ad. Then decide whether the fee is paying for work or for a screenshot.
