I just received a wish-list of my client demanding me to optimize his website in such a way that it is ranked in top 10 on all major search engines (e.g. google, yahoo, bing etc). His website is about "Alzheimer Disease" and I know that there is a lot about this topic on Internet. My Question:
Can any developer commit with his client that "I will rank your website on this position"?
Waiting reply from helping community....
I would say, no, it is impossible to guarantee that for anyone.
If http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/1/white-hat-seo exists one day, that might tell you some techniques you can use to try to achieve it.
Stack Overflow is not a SEO site, so your question will probably be closed soon.
Nevertheless:
No, you can never make such a commitment. Never trust anyone who does. Search engine rankings will change daily, sometimes hourly.
Getting among the top ten with a keyword like that is hard and a science in itself. Aside from of some common-sense SEO and building clean, up-to-date web sites, this often goes beyond what a Web Developer's job is.
Getting a good ranking like that is never down only to how you build your page - it's about backlinks from other sites, too. The higher valued the linking site is by the search engine, the better. This is not something that can be built quickly from scratch.
You may need to hire an external specialist. Tell your client that, and get some quotes from professional SEOs. You will most likely get the result that those people charge more than the site itself cost. That may already be the end of that story :)
What you can promise, if you're willing to do the learning and research, is update the technical structure of the web site in a way that its content is perfectly accessible to search engine robots. Nothing else.
You can do this "simply" by building a kick-ass site about Alzheimer Disease that everyone wants to link to. If you think this is unlikely, then you can't promise it will be in the top 10.
Impossible/extremely difficult without insider knowledge of how ranking systems for each of the search engines work.
Anyone that guarantees it is lying.
The keywords you posted will be highly competative as well.
This is another thing in life where hard work will give you results, creating the best unique and well written content specific to the keywords you want to be ranked on will give you your best shot.
It is not impossible... BUT (A very huge one) one cannot simply commit in doing something like that. It might take years till your page gets ranked up in all the top search engines. For that to happen your site should provide the BEST source of information about a topic, include a very active set of users with a huge number of hits per day. If this is achieved, your site would definitely be in the top 10. But the issue is, it is not easy as A B C. A range of Search Engine Optimization techniques should be applied :)
Politely inform your customer that most search engines try to supply the "most relevant" hits first, so if her/his site is the "best", it will climb to the top...
Google for guidelines to avoid the most common mistakes for SEO.
Getting into the top ten / high up search rankings isn't usually the end result clients should be looking for - the key result is getting more business / more traffic to the site. Clients often end up getting obsessed with appearing high up in the search rankings, even though it's unlikely to improve the amount of business or traffic to the site (if they already have a decent ranking).
So don't commit to it - it'll be a huge amount of work for very little payoff (and as others have mentioned, you can't guarantee anything). Things like Adwords or sponsored clicks are usually more effective at getting traffic.
It's not possible to make that kind of a promise.
You can work towards optimizing the site, allowing the search engine crawlers to obtain a better understanding of your websites content. After that it is up to the owners to make sure that content is good and people want to use and link to your site.
I'd recommend having a look at the Google webmaster tools and blog, it's full of useful information. link text
Here are some techniques that i would use:
1] Proper Title
Use the Google suggested rules for formatting your documents. Put the title of your page in H1 tags. Make sure that the title of your page is the same as the title in your H1 tags.
2] Content
Write GOOD QUALITY content on the subject. This is already a given since the site is specifically on that subject.
3] Inbound Links
Become a contributor for sites like about.com, mahalo.com etc. and write short relevant posts on their sites that link back to your main site. Or you could simply send suggestions to existing contributors on those sites. Why not write a HOW-TO diagnose Alzheimer for Dummies on Mahalo.com and About.com?
Participate in Discussion forums on that subject and create a link back. Use a bot to spider forums of WebMD like sites and post generic messages with links back to your main site.
Example Bot Messages: Alzheimer is a dreadful disease, see how you can self diagnose Alzheimer on [your site]. Make sure to also add randomized text to the message.
4] Auto Generate Content
This one is tricky, because auto generated content needs to have a decent quality. This means that your relevant search key words must appear in the content. The auto generated content links back to your main site for a specific key word.
Auto generated titles looks like: Alzheimer for Dummies, Alzheimers for Elderly, Self Diagnose Alzheimer. Alzheimer Medicine A, Alzheimer Medicine B etc. You get the picture. Write short pieces of text that can be generated as placeholder content in these pages. Don't make all the pages the same though. Make it look random.
5] Link Farming
Use multiple servers with multiple hosters that are in different IP ranges. Register your Alzheimer related domains with different hosters under different person/company names. Auto generate site content on these sites and make sure that they LINK BACK to your main site. This basically sets up a Link Farm/Factory
6] Ask a shit load of money
See how serious your client is by asking him a large pot of gold to get him into the top ten list. Is this feature a must have? Then he should be willing to pay for it. And use some of that money to crowd source your SEO :D
As a Developer, you have to be comfortable with your role when it comes to clients who don't understand the field. Do you feel confident that you want to be a pure developer, or are you willing to also work on Web Design, Copywriting or SEO?
I've worked with loads of Developers and would never ask them to make this commitment, but that's because I know what it means to ask. The client may appreciate a response that helps them separate the work you're doing from what else needs to be done, as in content writing and editorial work.
You can develop the best possible site for them. One that allows any well formatted, SEO-Optimised content to be ranked as highly as possibly, but that's where your role ends. If you demonstrate to them how your role can contribute to that end, they may understand and ask your advice on how to go about the rest of the work - rather than trying to dump it all on you.
Educate the client. As long as they're willing to be educated.
Best of luck to you and anyone else in this position.
Long story short, no.
The one factor you have no control over is time. The search companies use longevity as a factor for sure. Getting to the top of the list for something as common as your keyword set may be impossible in any short amount of time < 1 year with the current other sites you would be battling. Especially if you want to do it aboveboard.
Even with some "gray" stuff (normal HTML underneath a JavaScript loaded Flash website - client sees Flash unless they are on an iDevice and Google sees the html), it is tough. The other thing is you'll find that really focusing on increasing the ranking indirectly drives your content/copyright to be less than ideal. Then you will need to spend significant time in other link building manners.
If you are a web developer, you should only promise to build a Search Engine Friendly site. If the owner is set on getting into the top 10, he should seek a specialized firm. I would even get some quotes from firms to give him a cost idea. The firms will probably make him further specialize anyway since getting into the Top 10 for "Alzheimer's Disease" may not be possible without huge sums of cash, but "Early Onset Alzheimer's" or a slightly more specific term could be very possible with work.
Why does the client want to rank so highly for such a broad term? Unless the site is going to be a generic information hub about Alzheimer's Disease, I would try to narrow the keyword phrases you're optimizing for.
What's the client's business or organization concerned with? Diagnosis? Treatment? A new drug? Coping? Therapy?
With an answer to that question, you could target a much more specific keyword that isn't as broad or hotly contested, making it easier to rank in the search engines and also making searchers happier because they're actually finding what they're looking for.