[ry0ohki]

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.

[jarrett]

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.

[ry0ohki]

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.