Capital Hosting

If you're in business, chances are that you'll have had more than your fair share of emails offering you guaranteed SEO results. The slick salesman will do their best to convince you that they know the secret formula that Google uses and that - if you cross their palm with silver - they can somehow magic you to the top of the search results.

It's a tempting idea. And at the back of your mind you're probably thinking "But what if it's true? Would I be missing out to my competitors?"

Sorry to disappoint you but the answer is that the only thing that would improve is the salesman's commission.

No-one can guarantee SEO results for anyone.

The internet is way too complicated for that.

So your safest bet is to tell the salesman who's pretending to be able to guarantee your position in the search results that the answer is "no thank you."

Of course, they're unlikely to take no for an answer so you either have to be impolite or you have to put the phone down on them.

Google's algorithm - the computer program they use to work out where each site should appear in the search results - is a trade secret. Otherwise Bing and countless other competitors would be serious competition rather than their current status as also-rans.

It's also a very complicated computer program.

It takes account of lots of things including:

• Your previous searches
• Where you are located
• How long you stayed on a particular site
• If you're logged into a Google account such as mail or YouTube, lots of other factors

If you've got access to more than one computer in your home or office, try the same search on two different machines, side by side. Chances are the results aren't the same.

If you haven't got access to two machines, download another browser (Firefox, Chrome, whatever) and run the search through that without signing into Google.

Again, you'll almost certainly have two separate sets of results for an identical search.

Yet this twit of a salesman is trying to convince you that they have discovered the secret formula to get your website to the top of the search results. And they're even claiming they can guarantee those results.

In their dreams!

They are preying on a mixture of ignorance and wanting to out-do your competition.

Chances are that you don't spend all your waking hours poring over Google results trying to decipher how a particular site has achieved their SEO position.

Equally, chances are you don't want your competitors to steal a march on you by signing up with this firm who's just rung you up out of the blue.

But the reality is that whilst a good SEO company can give hints to Google as to where your site appears in the search results, that's as close as it gets.

Guaranteed SEO results are less likely than us finding Martians or Venusians.

Do yourself a favour and find an ethical SEO company to work with. One that uses methods that won't send alarm bells ringing across Google's search algorithm. If you care about your business, it's the only sensible course of action.