I noticed today that a client of ours received an email about getting number one search engine rankings in Google. Here’s the email. I’ve replaced the names of the non-convicted to protect the innocent (or however they say that on Law and Order.)

From: An SEO Guy <mytoprankseoservice.com>

Subject: First place Google ranking for [clientwebsite.com]

Message Body:

Att: Owner / Manager

Did you know that [clientwebsite.com] can rank #1 on Google quickly? To learn more please visit us at mytoprankseoservice.com

Sincerely,

An SEO Guy

mytoprankseoservice.com

First off, I should tell you that he’s not lying. It is possible to do this. However, getting a top 10 ranking on a search term you want can be quite difficult. Did you see what I did there, I qualified it: “a search term you want“. I worked with a guy who did #1 guarantees for awhile and I discovered he was finding things phrases that had little or no traffic to begin with and then getting his clients ranked by doing some things that Google would frown upon.

I don’t work with him anymore. It’s not honest.

So, if you ever do speak to these guys, ask them what the phrases might be and how they would execute. If they stick in strange pages on your site which are just keyword farms and link farms AND rank you for some obscure keyword phrase… it’s not worth your time or money.

In the battle between gaming SEO and good content, good content wins every time. (Tweet This.) Google and the other search engines are working frantically and putting millions of dollars into helping searchers find good quality content. If you’re creating it and putting in the SEO signposts, you’ll win eventually… just not overnight.

I would like to invite your comments below. Are you one of these SEO guys? How do you execute your SEO services? There might be good ones out there, so please prove me wrong!

Have you had experience with a company like this? Let us know as well down in the comments.

Speak soon,

~JW