[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.