• Do you have guarantees? 
• Can you guarantee results? 
• Do you have financial guarantees? 

To answer these questions, we need to understand what exactly an agency does and what its value is. 

What does an agency do to promote a website in search engines? 

An SEO agency, an SEO freelancer, or any other specialist (hereinafter referred to as an SEO contractor) possesses knowledge and understanding of: 

• how search engines rank websites;
• at what stage of promotion competitors are currently at;
• at what stage of promotion the website of the business to be promoted is currently at.

The task of an SEO contractor is to implement Google’s recommendations for a website undergoing promotion through an SEO audit. For a small website, most of the work for this task is completed within 2-3 months. For a large website, it is a continuous process. 

This is called an SEO audit or external website optimization.

Additionally, an SEO contractor can help improve a website’s positions and popularity on the internet through external optimization. Simply put, it involves buying links or exchanging them with other businesses. This way, the search engine “sees that other sites link to this site” and considers such a site more interesting to users. 

This is called link building. 

These activities are directly dependent on the SEO contractor, and these are the only processes that an SEO contractor manages and influences. 

In essence, SEO contractors sell up-to-date knowledge on website optimization and link building, as well as the technical implementation of these processes. 

Therefore, usually (but not always), the price of services is divided into 2 parts: 

• agency commission;
• budget for links. 

These processes can sometimes (but not always) be accelerated by buying more links, involving multiple specialists, etc. This requires more specialist hours and always leads to an increase in promotion costs. 

These are the processes that an SEO agency influences and can accelerate. More about marketing can be read in the article.

1. We Cannot Control Competitors Who Are Also Promoting. 

Can competitors promote, change promotion speed, and invest more money in promotion? 

Yes, they can, and they do. Constantly. 

Does a competitor’s strategy change affect my business promotion? 

Yes, it does. 

Can an SEO provider predict in advance how a competitor will change their promotion strategy or promotion budget? 

No, they cannot. 

Precisely because competitors can change their promotion budget by 2-3 times in 1-2-3-6-9 months, this directly impacts our promotion. 

We will also need to change promotion budgets. 

If previously, by purchasing 30 links per month, we were catching up to a competitor who bought 25 links per month, then an increase in the competitor’s monthly link purchases will force us to buy even more links, because otherwise, we will lose and fall behind in the number of links. 

(This is not always the only factor influencing promotion, but it’s the simplest example). 

Can an SEO contractor guarantee that the promotion budget WILL NOT change? 

No, they cannot – we don’t know when a competitor will change their strategy and how it will affect our promotion. 

2. Unplanned Technical Site Changes. 

A technical SEO audit of a website is part of the SEO work, and the number of changes required for the site will only be known after a complete technical audit, which can take from two weeks for a small site to 3-6 months for a large site.  

Only after the technical SEO audit will the approximate scope of technical work become clear. 

After determining the scope of work, a new problem arises – the waiting time for resources to implement the audit. This problem affects 70% of SEO promotion projects. 

Because developers for small businesses are quite expensive, finding a developer, estimating the cost of implementing the SEO audit, and signing a work contract can take 1-2 months, which constitutes 15-25% of the promotion time. 

The next challenge with technical changes is the complexity of implementation and encountering new problems that cannot be foreseen during the implementation of the technical SEO audit. 

It is precisely because of all these complexities that it is impossible to clearly understand how long the implementation of a technical SEO audit will take, and it cannot be stipulated in the contract. 

Among experienced project managers, there is a rule that we must share with you. 

To understand the time and cost of technical SEO implementations – multiply the developer’s estimate by 3. This will be the real time and cost estimate. 

3. Constant Changes in Search Engine Algorithms. 

Let’s start with a clear example. In mid-May 2025, Google search engine in Ukraine began adding AI answers to informational queries in its search results. This caused all websites promoted for informational queries to lose 15% to 40% of their traffic without any change in their rankings. 

The reason is that the search engine started providing answers to user queries directly, eliminating the need to visit any website. 

Such changes are not frequent, but they do happen. And what should those who guaranteed traffic in their contracts do? 

Search engines constantly change their operating algorithms. This affects the strategies used by SEO agencies and specialists, making them outdated and requiring changes and improvements. 

In 95% of cases, such changes cannot be predicted, which is why an SEO agency cannot guarantee you results. 

4. I Have Seen Agencies That Claim to Guarantee Results. Why Do They Say That If It Cannot Be Done? 

All SEO contractors work approximately the same way and perform the same tasks. Some control processes better, some have developers on retainer, but the principle of promotion is the same for everyone. Therefore, other agencies also cannot guarantee results. 

But they resort to a trick.

Trick 1. Increase the link budget 2-3 times to outweigh strong competitor activity in advance. 

In this case, the number of links purchased by the SEO contractor is unbalanced and intentionally exaggerated. In such a scenario, if the website is promoted without significant complications from competitors, the SEO contractor usually does not use the entire link budget but simply keeps it as additional commission. 

This is non-transparent work and an inefficient use of the budget by 30-40%.  

To summarize this trick in one point: SEO promotion will be non-transparent and cost 2-3 times more. 

Trick 2. Provide financial guarantees. 

This is a sales trick. SEO work is very long-term, and it’s much easier to sell a service if a money-back guarantee for 1 month of work is included. This creates an illusion of a guarantee that doesn’t exist. 

The fact that something is additionally stipulated in the contract does not guarantee results; it’s just a tactic to sell the service. The SEO contractor will perform all the same actions as a regular agency that does not provide guarantees. 

In both cases, the SEO contractor is not acting entirely openly and honestly. 

Should you start working with an agency that is tricky and not open with you during the initial meetings? In any case, the decision is yours. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I learn more about this topic?

We recommend exploring other articles on our blog and official documentation. Our content is regularly updated to reflect the latest changes in 2026.

Can I get a consultation?

Yes, you can reach out to our team for a free consultation through the contact form on our website. We’ll help you find the best solution for your business needs.

Are there free tools available?

Most tools described in this article offer free plans or trial versions. Check the pricing section in the article for detailed information.