An offer that promises first-page rankings with a guarantee is easy to test. Google's own advice on hiring an SEO says it plainly: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." If you run a stand-up comedy club and an agency offers to fill your Friday shows through guaranteed search placement, you can read its wording against Google's pages and against the Turkish Commercial Code's rule on unfair competition. This is not legal advice.
Other Turkish advertising regulations are outside this topic. Google's documentation changes over time, so check the current page before you rely on a line.
Google's wording on ranking guarantees
Google's page "Do you need an SEO?" (Opens in a new tab) states that no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google, and that if someone guarantees their changes will give you first place in search results, you should find someone else. It also warns against SEOs who claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google or advertise a "priority submit" to Google.
Taking a guarantee apart
A guarantee offer has a target (first place), a certainty (the guarantee) and a supposed mechanism (a special relationship, a secret method, a priority route). The page addresses each: the target cannot be guaranteed, so the certainty has nothing behind it, and the mechanisms are among the claims it warns about.
Adviser questions on the Google page
The page lists questions to put to a candidate: what results do you expect and in what timeframe, how do you measure your success, will you share all the changes you make to my site, and how can I expect to communicate with you. It also suggests asking for examples of previous work and success stories, checking business references and asking whether the candidate follows Google Search Essentials. The documentation has no statement on a number of months.
Five questions before you answer an offer
| Question | Why ask it |
|---|---|
| What result do you expect, and in what timeframe? | Turns a guarantee into a measurable target |
| How do you measure success? | No measurement means no way to verify |
| Will you share every change you make? | Tests the secrecy claim |
| Can you show previous work and references? | The page suggests asking for examples and checking references |
| Do you follow Google Search Essentials? | The page lists this question |
Turning replies into a score
Practical suggestion: mark each answer "written and specific", "written but vague" or "no answer". Three or more "no answer" marks are a signal to stop. This scoring is an internal decision tool, not a legal test.
Applying the score to the agency's reply
Example scenario: the club sends the five questions and the agency replies the next day. The club marks each reply.
| Question | Reply (invented) | Mark |
|---|---|---|
| Result and timeframe | "First page within the first month" | Written but vague |
| Measurement | "We will send screenshots" | Written but vague |
| Changes to the site | "A monthly report is sent" | Written but vague |
| Previous work | Two client names with contact details | Written and specific |
| Search Essentials | No reply | No answer |
One "no answer" falls short of the suggested limit of three, so the club does not stop. It asks the Search Essentials question again, and asks the measurement question with a query, a tool and a date. If the second round brings no answer, the order stays on hold.
Link promises and the spam policies
Google's spam policies (Opens in a new tab) define link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings. Its examples include buying or selling links for ranking purposes, exchanging money, goods or services for links or for posts that contain them, excessive link exchanges, and advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass ranking credit. Links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites are also listed.
The same page recognises that buying and selling links is a normal part of advertising and sponsorship, and says such links are not a violation if they are qualified with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". It adds that sites violating the policies may rank lower or not appear in results at all, and that human review can result in a manual action.
Offer wording to question
"Ten powerful links every month, guaranteed" describes buying links for ranking purposes. The policies page lists that as spam unless the links are qualified. Practical suggestion: ask the agency how each link will be marked, and write the answer into the order.
Penalties and ranking effects
The documentation has no statement on penalties for link spam or on how a given site's ranking would change.
Secrecy, special access and priority submission
The same page says to be careful if a company is secretive or will not clearly explain what it plans to do, and to ask for explanations if something is unclear. A line such as "our method is confidential" falls under that warning.
| A line from an offer | What the Google page says |
|---|---|
| "We guarantee position one" | No one can guarantee a number one ranking, find someone else |
| "We have a special relationship with Google" | Beware of SEOs that allege such a relationship |
| "We submit your site to Google with priority" | Beware of SEOs that advertise priority submit |
| "Our method is secret" | Be careful if a company will not explain what it plans to do |
| "We submit you to thousands of search engines" | Avoid SEOs that talk about link popularity schemes or submission to thousands of search engines |
| An unsolicited email pitch | Be wary of firms that email you out of the blue |
How to use the Google checklist
The Google page lists things to be careful about when choosing an adviser. Practical suggestion: treat each line as a question to send to the agency, and collect the answers in writing.
Contract terms and payment when in doubt
Move every promise you care about from the pitch into the order. If the offer says "first place," ask for that sentence in the order. An agency that refuses to put it in writing is telling you the promise is not part of the deal. Practical suggestion: split payment so that it follows delivery and reporting. The documentation has no statement on payment terms, which belong in your contract.
Reporting a deceptive adviser
Google's page says that if you feel deceived by an SEO you may report it, and names the US Federal Trade Commission for deceptive or unfair business practices and econsumer.gov for complaints against companies outside the United States. These are foreign bodies named in a general principle, not a description of a route in Turkey. The Turkish route is outside this topic.
A request to link to the agency
The page also says you should never have to link to an SEO. A request for a link from your site to the agency's is a point to question.
For a wider reading of seller wording, see red flags in a backlink seller quote, for the myths Google's documentation corrects, SEO myths and what Google documentation says, and for tracing where an agency gets its links, the supply chain transparency checklist.
Pitch lines versus contract terms
A sentence in a pitch is not necessarily part of the deal unless it appears in the order. The documentation has no statement on how a court would treat an unwritten pitch line, but the practical conclusion for a business is clear: every promise you care about belongs in the order. In the comedy club example, the owner asks for the first-page line to be written into the order. If the agency refuses, the line is decoration and should not influence the payment decision. If the agency agrees, the line must become a measurable target: which query, which country and language, which measuring tool, which date?
No yardstick, no promise
"Position one" means nothing alone. A query's ranking can differ by person, location, device and moment. The documentation has no detailed statement on this, but a promise that cannot be measured cannot be verified. Practical suggestion: have the promised result written in four parts: query, measurement method, measurement date and acceptable range. If the agency avoids any of them, the vagueness is probably deliberate.
Reporting and change records
Google's question about sharing all the changes made to your site can be turned into a contract term. Practical suggestion: write into the order that every change to the site is logged with a date, that each published link is listed with its page, and that reports arrive at a stated interval. Without such records, an agency's claim that work was done cannot be checked.
Paying in stages or paying upfront
A request for upfront payment is not a sign of fraud on its own, but combined with a guarantee line it deserves attention. The documentation has no statement on payment terms, which are a matter for the contract. Practical suggestion: divide payment into three parts: some on order confirmation, some on the first report, the rest after the target is measured. If the agency declines, ask for its reason in writing.
Keeping evidence
When in doubt, keep the pitch email, screenshots of the agency's promise page and the correspondence, each with its date. Page content can change, and a dated screenshot shows what was promised and when. If a dispute arises, these records help.
After the agency replies
If the agency answers the five questions in detail and with documents, that can be a good sign, but if the guarantee line remains, the rest of the offer still needs rewriting. If it drops the guarantee and proposes a measurable target, the conversation is on firmer ground. An agency that does not answer a written question has given you information too.
A short pre-signing checklist
- Mark every absolute word in the offer: guarantee, certain, definitely, first place.
- Look for the matching line in the Google page.
- Send the five questions in writing.
- Move promises into the order or have them removed.
- Split the payment into stages.
- Keep dated records.
Claims log and reply template
Each absolute line in an offer can be tracked in one log. Practical suggestion: start the log on the day the offer arrives and keep it with the order.
The claims log
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Offer line | The exact words in quotation marks, with the date received |
| Compared with | The Google page, the spam policies, or the item of Article 55 it resembles |
| Question sent | The question and the date it left |
| Reply | Its date, whether it is in writing, and which of the three marks it earns |
| Decision | Accept, keep asking or refuse, with a one-sentence reason |
Reply e-mail outline
The skeleton is a sentence structure, not a ready letter.
- "Your offer of [date] says '[quoted line]'."
- "Please state in writing what supports this statement."
- "For measurement, please give the query, the country and language, the tool and the date."
- "Please state how each paid link will be marked."
- "I will wait for your answer until [date] and will not pay before then."
Preparing for the call
- Copy the absolute lines of the offer into the log.
- Take dated screenshots of the agency's promise page.
- Send the five questions in writing before the call, with a date for the answers.
- Confirm by email, the same day, whatever was promised on the call.
- Agree at the end of the call which promises will be written into the order.
Article 55 and the wording of offers
Article 55 of the Turkish Commercial Code (Opens in a new tab) lists the main cases of unfair competition. Paragraph 1(a) covers advertising and sales methods contrary to the rule of honesty and other unlawful conduct, in particular the items that follow. Item 2: making untrue or misleading statements about oneself, one's business, business signs, goods, products, activities, prices, stock, form of sales campaigns and business relations, or putting a third person ahead in competition by the same means. Item 9: concealing the features, quantity, purposes of use, benefits or dangers of goods, products or activities and thereby misleading the customer.
Item 3 lists acting as if one holds a rank, diploma or award one has not received, in order to create the impression of exceptional ability. Item 7 lists misleading the customer about the real value of an offer by means of additional benefits.
| Sentence in an offer | Item it may be compared with |
|---|---|
| "We are Google partners" (if untrue) | Untrue statement about business relations (item 2) |
| "Award-winning agency" (if no award exists) | Acting as if one holds an award never received (item 3) |
| "Free bonus package included" (if of little real value) | Misleading about the value of an offer through extras (item 7) |
| Hiding where the links come from | Concealing features of an activity to mislead (item 9) |
The table sets sentences next to the text of the article. Whether a statement is unfair competition is for a court.
Reading Article 55 carefully
The list in Article 55 opens with the main cases of unfair competition, so it is illustrative and does not claim to be complete. That a behaviour is absent from the list does not mean it is lawful, and a sentence that resembles a listed item is not automatically unfair competition. Practical suggestion: compare the sentence with the article, then leave the conclusion to the court.
Who can sue under Article 56
Article 54 states the purpose of the unfair-competition rules as honest and undistorted competition in the interest of all participants. Its second paragraph treats deceptive conduct, or conduct that otherwise breaches the rule of honesty, in relations between competitors or between suppliers and customers as unfair and unlawful. An agency's offer is a commercial practice, so a comparison can run through Article 54 too. A court decides which provision applies to a given file.
Under Article 56(1), a person whose customers, credit, professional reputation, business or other economic interests are harmed, or threatened with harm, by unfair competition may ask for:
- a declaration of whether the act is unfair;
- an order to stop it;
- removal of the situation it created, including correction of false or misleading statements and, where unavoidable to prevent the infringement, destruction of the tools and goods used;
- compensation for loss, where there was fault;
- non-material compensation, where the conditions of Article 58 of the Code of Obligations are met.
Paragraph 2 lets customers whose economic interests are harmed or threatened bring the same actions, except that they cannot ask for destruction. Paragraph 3 lets chambers of commerce and industry, tradesmen's chambers, stock exchanges, related professional and economic associations, civil society organisations that protect consumers' economic interests and public bodies bring the actions in items (a), (b) and (c) of paragraph 1. The time limit for bringing such an action is outside this topic.
Pressure, comparison and disparagement lines
Three more items of Article 55(1)(a) may be relevant to sales offers.
- "Other agencies' links will wreck your site" is read against item 1, which covers disparaging others, their goods, products, prices, activities or business affairs through false, misleading or needlessly offensive statements.
- "We are far faster than our competitors", with no support, is read against item 5, which covers comparing oneself or one's goods with others in a way that is untrue, misleading or needlessly disparaging.
- "This price is valid today only; pay today or the campaign ends" is read against item 8, which covers restricting the customer's freedom of decision through particularly aggressive sales methods.
These pairings are reading aids, and a court decides whether a line falls within an item. Practical suggestion: mark every deadline-pressure line ("last day", "only today") and ask the agency for its reason in writing.
Agency liability for a sales representative
Article 57(1) says that where an act of unfair competition was committed by employees or workers while doing their work, the actions in items (a), (b) and (c) of Article 56(1) may also be brought against the employer. A pitch written by a sales representative may therefore put the agency itself in the position of defendant. Whether the provision applies to a given file is for a court. It is one more reason to move a representative's spoken promises into the agency's written quotation or the order.
Auditing the club's own promotion
Example scenario: while reviewing the agency's offer, the club checks its own poster. A line reading "Special weeknight tickets" with no mention of which shows qualify or when the offer ends brings to mind item 2, which covers untrue or misleading statements about prices and the form of sales campaigns. Item 9 covers concealing the features or benefits of an activity so as to mislead the customer. A court decides whether a poster misleads. Practical suggestion: print the conditions, the dates and the exceptions at the same size as the headline.
Checking your own wording
The article targets advertising and sales methods. A buyer who advertises its own business should check its own wording too: what a club writes about its shows and prices should also be accurate.
Worked example: a stand-up comedy club and a ranking offer
Example scenario: a stand-up comedy club receives an email promising "page one in 30 days or your money back, thanks to our direct line to Google." The agency wants the full fee up front.
Reading the agency email line by line
- The page-one guarantee: the Google page says no one can guarantee it.
- The direct line to Google: the page warns against alleged special relationships.
- The 30 days: the page suggests asking about the timeframe. The documentation has no statement on a number of days.
- The refund promise: the documentation has no statement on refunds, which is a contract matter.
- The unsolicited email: the page advises wariness.
The club replies with five questions in writing and waits for written answers. An agency that will not answer has told the club something useful.
Decision rule: accept, question or refuse
| What the offer contains | Decision |
|---|---|
| A guaranteed position or page-one promise | Refuse, or ask for the guarantee to be removed |
| A claimed special relationship or priority submission | Ask for proof, refuse if none comes |
| Secrecy about the method | Ask for an explanation |
| Paid links for ranking | Ask for written commitment on nofollow or sponsored marking |
| A concrete target, measurement, reports and a change log | Keep evaluating |
Rule: when you see a guarantee, secrecy or a special-relationship claim, ask in writing first, and do not pay until the answers arrive.
Release conditions per payment stage
| Stage | Condition for releasing it |
|---|---|
| Order confirmation | The guarantee line is removed or rewritten as a measurable target, in writing |
| First report | The change log and the list of links are received, and each paid link carries its mark |
| Target check | The measurement is made with the agreed tool on the agreed date |
Slips that undermine a vendor review
Accepting a pitch line as a contract term
A line in a pitch is not part of the deal until it is written into the order. An agency that refuses to put it in writing is telling you the promise is not part of the deal.
Paying everything before any report
Practical suggestion: split payment so that it follows delivery and reporting.
Skipping the link-marking question
The policies page lists paid links without qualification as spam. Ask how each link will be marked, and write the answer into the order.
Using the Google checklist as a ban list
The page lists things to be careful about when choosing an adviser. Treat each line as a question to send to the agency and collect the answers in writing.
Forgetting your own wording
Article 55 targets advertising and sales methods, so a buyer who advertises its own business should check its own wording too.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do when an agency guarantees first place?
Google's guidance says no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and that if someone guarantees first place you should find another adviser.
Which promises does the Google page warn about?
The page warns about SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a special relationship with Google or advertise priority submit.
Does a nofollow or sponsored tag change the link-buying picture?
The spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, and say links qualified with rel nofollow or rel sponsored are not a violation.
Which part of Article 55 covers untrue statements about a business?
Article 55(1)(a) item 2 lists untrue or misleading statements about one's business, activities, prices and business relations as a case of unfair competition. This is not legal advice.
Which questions does Google's page suggest putting to an adviser?
Expected results and timeframe, how success is measured, whether all changes will be shared and how communication will work.
Does the Google page point to a complaint route in Turkey?
Google's page names the US Federal Trade Commission and econsumer.gov. The documentation has no statement on a route in Turkey.
Conclusion
In short: compare guarantee, secrecy and special-relationship claims with Google's page, ask the five questions in writing, move the promises into the order and hold payment until the answers arrive. This is not legal advice.
If you prefer delivery and reporting records to ranking promises, see the backlink packages page.
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