Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to get some casual reading done — well, casual for me. (Meaning I wasn’t reading Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer — all fun, but not ‘casual.’ [Though, I do need to go through the Canterbury Tales again…]) I checked out some other SEO companies online.

Wow.

That’s really all I should have to say about that. “Top 10 rankings guaranteed in 5 weeks or your money returned.” “We’ll get you to the first page in Google in a month, without question.” “You’ll rank so high the Almighty will want to read you from Google.”

Sweet Methuselah’s beard, promises like these are signs of a company that you should avoid at all costs. Honestly, anyone who is promising you a top 10 ranking in any sort of timeframe, or even at all, is a shady character.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a 1,342 times, SEO is about techniques and best practices, but there are no guarantees. Come on crappy companies, stop making ridiculous promises like this!