You're a business owner looking to increase profits by carefully selecting an SEO company to boost your site's rankings and traffic. It's tempting to go with a search engine optimization company that promises what appears to be a risk-free offer: the Guaranteed or your money back promise that appears on many SEO websites can be very appealing. And very deceptive.

The truth is that most of these guarantees are clever word play with the truth tucked away somewhere deep within the contract's fine print that most customers don't even read. That places the odds heavily in favor of the SEO keeping your money and leaving you with no results to show for your investment.

That's why it's so important to read, ask questions and fully understand any search engine optimization agreement before you sign it and pay for it.

And unfortunately, you also will have to accept some level of risk that goes along with entering into any sort of marketing agreement... especially the kind of SEO agreement that offers what I call "false hope" guarantees. Since the companies promoting them won't tell you how they really work, I will.

The False Hope Guarantee

The most common false hope guarantee goes something like this:

Guaranteed Top 10 Rankings On Major Search Engines or Your Money Back!

Looks good, right? Until you find out that the Major Search Engines include not just the big three (Google, Yahoo! and MSN) but also the little eight (Ask, AlltheWeb, Alta Vista, Netscape, Looksmart, Lycos, ExactSeek and Excite.)

Now I dont know about you, but theres nothing that Excites me about having my site listed in any search engine other than Google, Yahoo! and MSN. So whats wrong, you ask, with being listed in those other search engines, too?

The problem is, if you read the SEO agreement carefully you will see that you are only guaranteed a certain number of top ten placements among the search engines listed and NOT necessarily in all the engines listed.

So, let's say they guaranteed you 10 top 10 search engine placements. Then they got just one of your keyword phrases ranked in the top 10 organic listings of the eight minor engines. According to their guarantee, that counts as 8 top 10 placements towards your guaranteed 10. Get one more keyword phrase in both Alta Vista and Excite, well theres your top 10 and lo and behold, you still have zero rankings in the three engines that matter most: Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

I'm sure there are companies that offer this kind of guarantee and actually do deliver top rankings in Google, Yahoo! and MSN. But those companies are rare and hard to separate from the pack.

The Surprise Guarantee

Here's another scenario that's all too common. Lets say the SEO company offering this type of agreement does hit the mark on the top three engines plus a few extra everyone's happy, right? The rankings were achieved, you happily continue to pay your monthly fees for the remainder of your 6 or 12 month agreement, but then you discover the guarantee is no longer valid because the agreed-upon rankings were achieved. Once.

Then one day the algorithms shift, as we know they are prone to do, and your rankings drop. What then? According to the agreement, you still have to keep paying your monthly dues even though the guarantee of top ten rankings is now null and void.

The Better Option

Thats why a pay-for-performance organic SEO campaign based on top 10 (first page) rankings is a much safer bet. As long as you're only paying for the rankings the company delivers, you're protected from any deceptive top 10 guarantees and contractual loopholes.

Here is an example of one of the better pay-for-performance monthly maintenance plans for SEO services:

Number of Top 10 Rankings on Google / Yahoo! / MSN Achieved:

0-9 top 10 rankings = $0  10 or more = $300 20 or more = $400 30 or more = $500
With this type of an arrangement, you benefit in several ways:
you are only paying for rankings in the three search engines that matter most,  you don't pay for any rankings, regardless of how good they are, until there are ten of them in the top 10,  and after that you only pay according to how well the company performs for you.

So when the search engines throw your site a curve ball and rankings dip, your SEO budget is protected because you only pay for the rankings you get.

In summary, when shopping for SEO services be skeptical of any money back offer that guarantees top ten results. Instead consider the protection offered by pay-for-performance SEO plans.

And whichever option you choose, never take the sales rep's word for it. Get it in writing and understand every word of the contract before you sign. It's the best way to protect your marketing investment.