I prefer an action-based agreement rather than a result-based agreement.  I am more comfortable signing a contract in which I am required to take specific actions such as keyword research, meta-tag optimization, and setting up social networking than I am signing one which promises the golden #1 spot on Google.

I am willing to believe that this is merely a reflection of my relatively recent expedition into the SEO world, and therefore a natural apprehension to promising outstanding results when I only recently discovered the Google Keyword tool myself.  However, I think it also raises in an important question:  How can an SEO promise a particular ranking on Google when Google determines a site’s page rank?

Such an SEO sound a bit like a defense lawyer promising that if his services are employed, his client will not go to jail.  How can a lawyer promise a verdict when it is not up to him?  Surely, he can make a strong case for his client, just as SEOs can optimize a page to Google’s liking, but he cannot sell his services based on a result that is out of his immediate control.