"Will this get us to the top of Google?" How to answer honestly

A café owner forwards you an email. "We will get you on page one of Google in 30 days, or your money back." Underneath, she's written one line: "Can you do this too? They're cheaper than you."

You know the honest answer. The hard part is saying it without sounding like you're less capable than the stranger who sent the email.

Here's the answer, and it comes from Google itself. No one can promise a top Google ranking. Google's guide to hiring an SEO (search engine optimisation, the work of helping a site show up in search) says so in as many words, and tells business owners to be wary of anyone who claims otherwise. What you can promise is the work, a regular check of what changed, and an honest report either way.

Can anyone guarantee a top Google ranking?

No. Google Search Central publishes a page called "Do you need an SEO?" for business owners thinking of hiring help. It includes this line: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." It goes on to warn against SEOs who claim to guarantee rankings, claim a "special relationship" with Google, or offer a "priority submit".

The same page says that if an SEO audit promises changes will give you first place in search results, you should find someone else. And it says Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in its search results.

That's worth showing the café owner. It isn't your opinion against a competitor's email. It's the search engine describing its own rules.

Why can't SEO results be promised?

Because the person doing the work doesn't control the result.

• Google decides. It chooses what to show for each search, and it changes how it decides over time.
• Local results depend on the searcher. Google's help page on local ranking says local results are based mainly on how relevant a business is to the search, how far it is from the person searching, and how well known it is. A café can show up first for someone two streets away and not at all for someone across town.
• Competitors move too. The bakery next door might redo its site the same month you redo the café's.
• Nobody can buy it. Google's local ranking page says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

So a promise of "page one in 30 days" is either a guess, a trick with a search nobody makes, or a paid ad described as something else.

What can you honestly promise instead?

The work, the checks and the honesty. Put it in a table the client can read in a minute:

You can promise	You can't promise
Fix what stops Google reading the site, such as missing page titles or broken links	A position in the results
Make the business's name, address, phone and hours match everywhere	A number of new customers
Keep the Google Business Profile complete and up to date, if that's in the plan	Results by a certain date
Help the business ask customers for reviews	Stars or review counts
A report every month showing the same numbers, with where each came from	That the numbers will go up
To tell the client when something isn't working	That a competitor will fall behind

The left column is real value. A local business with a correct listing, a site Google can read and a steady stream of honest reviews is in a much better position than one without, even though nobody can say exactly where it will appear.

How do you answer the question on a call?

Short, calm and specific. Something like this:

"Nobody can promise you the top spot, and Google says so on its own help pages. I'll show you the page. What I can do is fix the things that stop Google understanding your site, get your Google listing complete and correct, and help you ask happy customers for reviews. Every month I'll send you the same few numbers so we can both see what's changing. If something isn't working after three months, I'll tell you."

Then, if they bring up the cheaper email, don't attack it. Point to the Google page and let the client draw their own conclusion. Owners respect a straight answer more than a sales pitch against someone else.

Reviews come up in almost every one of these conversations, because customers read them and Google counts them as part of how well known a business is. How to ask customers for Google reviews covers doing it within Google's rules.

What should you show the client each month?

The same few things, in the same order, so changes are easy to spot:

1. What you did this month, in one or two lines.
2. How the site shows up in search: clicks and times shown from Google Search Console, Google's free tool for site owners.
3. The Google listing: whether the details are correct and what changed.
4. Reviews: new reviews this month and whether they've been answered.
5. What people are told by AI assistants. More people ask ChatGPT and similar tools for local recommendations; how consumers use AI to find local businesses looks at BrightLocal's 2026 survey. You can check business in ChatGPT and Google's AI answers with the same questions each month.
6. What's next, and anything the client needs to decide.

When a number goes down, say so and say what you think caused it. When you don't know, write "unknown". A report that only ever shows good news stops being believed.

What if the client already paid someone who promised page one?

Be kind about it. The owner didn't do anything foolish; they believed a confident email, as plenty of people do. Google's own guide exists partly because this happens so often.

Ask to see what the other company actually did. Often it's one of these:

• A report showing first place for a search nobody makes, such as the business's full legal name plus the suburb. Of course the business shows up first for its own name.
• Paid ads described as "getting you to the top". The ads stop when the payments stop, and they're labelled as ads.
• Very little at all, apart from a monthly invoice.

Then show the owner what's real: how the site appears in Google Search Console, what the Google listing looks like, what customers say in reviews. Don't criticise the other company by name. Let the facts do it, and offer to start with a clear, written list of work and a date to review it together.

How do you write SEO work down?

As a service with a clear promise and a clear ending, the same way you'd write a care plan. A service recipe is a simple format: what the service needs from you and the client, how you check it's working, what the client gets each month, what costs extra and how it ends.

Two lines belong in every SEO service description:

• "We report what we observe. We don't promise rankings."
• "Results depend on Google, the searcher's location and other businesses, which we don't control."

If you work mainly in marketing rather than websites, selling local services as a marketer covers the same honest approach across other services.

Where Volant fits

Volant's SEO service keeps a dated before-and-after record of the work and the numbers, so the monthly report shows what changed and where each figure came from. It never promises a ranking. It sits alongside the other services to sell after the website.