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Comment by jarrett | Hacker News Reader

I would love it if Google published an official answer to the perennial client question: "Why can't you get my site to the top of the SERPs for [insert competitive keywords here]?"

My answer is usually along these lines: "Your site is competing for placement with many other professionally-built sites. If I'm doing my job properly, and so are the other web developers, none of us is or should be entitled to top placement. Also, placement depends heavily on factors that are solely in your control as the site owner, such as the quality of the content."

But when web devs say this, clients sometimes think we're just trying to shirk responsibility. So I would be really happy if I could point them to an official statement from Gogole that conveys roughly the same message.

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Thanks for the suggestion. Here's a related video we've done to educate people about why they shouldn't care as much about trying to rank #1 for trophy phrases that might not even convert that well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21BF_IVU10I

But your suggestion is slightly different and a good one.

Hey Matt, one question m8! If You/Google are against people building links that aren’t earned, why do you/they allow advertisers to use the add words platform to sell “link building” services? These links aren't "earned" or natural, or are they???

Google “link building” to see adds that state "Guaranteed Page One Ranking"!

Im not a smart guy (not at all) but to me, logically if you/google allow this on your addwords platform then "link building" must be okay, but only from these specific addword companies? right? What am I missing?

Google organic and paid resutlts are 2 different things even though both showing up together on the same page, probably completely different departments and at least different rules and regulation apply. You can advertise for anything you want as long as it complies to the adwords terms and conditions.

Sometimes I think that rather than get tied up in the arms race that can be SEO, you're better off building a decent site and then focusing on alternative marketing opportunities.

e.g., if you're a bed and breakfast, you're not going to win on "[location] accommodation" or "luxury accommodation in [location]" because it will be dominated by directories and the like. Instead, you're probably better off making sure your listings on TripAdvisor/etc are good, make sure your service is exceptional, and then quickly respond to any negative reviews that may arise. For a B&B, I don't think I'd put much effort into backlinks or even tailored content.

https://www.google.com/competition/howgooglesearchworks.html

Anything in particular on that page you'd like to highlight? I'm putting myself in the shoes of a client who just wants "my site to be ranked higher." From this client's perspective, it's the web dev's job to make that happen. I don't see anything on the linked-to page that directly dispels this notion.

Just to be clear: I recognize that the web developer plays a role in improving Google rankings. I.e. the web dev should definitely follow Google guidelines. But following the guidelines doesn't automatically get you to the top. (What if everyone follows the guidelines? They can't all be in first place.)

1. List some of the high-level factors that affect search engine rankings. Eg: quality of content, mentions on other sites and social media, and site structure.

2. Circle the factors over which you as a developer have control. In the above example it would be "site structure."

3. Explain that the other factors are out of your control or are not within the scope of work.

There's no shortage of marketing consultants (I'm one) and specialists that can help with the other factors.

Everything, did you read it? It's exactly what you were asking for. It's a clear outline of how Google works on a basic level. It uses signals from keywords as well as popularity. A web dev alone cannot affect the popularity.

You can follow all the technical guidelines but if no one is linking to you, you won't be number one. In the unlikely event two sites have the same weighted links, quality and technical relevance, I'm sure other things like speed or age are taken into account.

Yes, I read it very carefully. It does not discuss the role of the web developer, or how much power a developer has to affect rankings.

The closest thing I can find is this: "Not every website can come out at the top of the page, or even appear on the first page of our search results." But many web dev clients are likely to respond: "I know not everyone can be first. But why can't I?" To which I reply that the client's competitors also have perfectly competent web devs.

It does say a (very) little about how relevance is determined. But to a client who doesn't want to be bothered with implementation details, this will come across as noise.

That's because the web dev has as much to do with the ranking on Google as an architect has to do with the success of the business inside the office he designed.

You can make the most well structured perfectly semantic website in the world, and that doesn't mean it will even get indexed by Google. That's where the marketer, and the business you are designing for come into place, which is what that link described.

I'm not an expert, but the way I see it, It's kind of like having a horse competing for a race.

You can make sure the horse is physically prepared, in good shape, has been properly trained and has been thoroughly inspected for any needed medication, but you can't and won't ever be able to ensure that the horse you're caring for will 100% of the time finish the race first.

Sure, you can use some shady tactics, drugs, or anything else, but that's temporary and is bound to be corrected unless there's some stuff going on with the judges...

same goes with SEO. As a dev, you can only guarantee so much. You might hit the jackpot, you might use dirty tactics to get to the number one spot, but in the end, what you can confidently guarantee only allows any given website to be in perfect shape to be in the starting blocks. The rest is up to you.

Your answer should be quite clear: that's not a developer's responsibility. Tell them to consult a digital marketing or search specialist.

Agreed. I think most of us tell clients this when it comes up. But still, some clients view that response as a way to weasel out of "building a good site." Clients don't always understand the distinctions in roles. Some of them see "making a website" as a monolithic task. To them, adding a blue background to a page and moving that page up in the SERPs are equally difficult--for both, you just have to know how to code.

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