Excellent post by Search Engine Land, summing up real expectations you can expect from a SEO partnership. http://searchengineland.com/10-worst-link-building-assumptions-194353 Some highlights: Couldn't agree more. Buyers should never consider a vendor that will quote exactly how many links it will take you to rank. Also, be honest about what SEO you've done in the past. This can have a definite impact on your vendors ability to perform. Honesty can only help. If a vendor quotes this, walk away. Unless they work for Google. Whitehat sites are just as vulnerable as any other site when it comes to penalization. I'd even argue that the risk can sometimes be higher, since you have zero control over the link velocity, anchor text, and referring sites.