Is Google Webmaster Guidelines(Search Console) useful for Ranking?

[Phill]

I am confused about Google webmaster guidelines. I am observing from last one month on Google search. Every time when I searched on Google it will show the top 10 result that are not followed Google webmaster guidelines. I shocked when I review all the websites that are in top 10 of Google search. <snip - please no outing of competition>

Just check the title and meta description of that top 3 local business website. You socked if you are doing your search engine optimization by following the guidelines of Google webmaster.

After observing all these things I just want to clarify that Is Google webmaster guideline useful or not? Beacause this is not good thing for us. You, me and all are optimizing our website as per the search engine optimization guide given by Google and now Google is still not showing the result of well optimized website. What Google wants and what it shows?

Why we are following the search engine optimization guide? If Google is strictly follow its guidelines then why it shows the website that are not optimized according to its search engine optimization guideline.

What exactly is Google Doing? Do you know? Please share with me by giving comments.

[edited by: goodroi at 11:21 am (utc) on Oct 13, 2015]
[edit reason] Welcome to WebmasterWorld, now please go read & follow the community guidelines [/edit]

[goodroi]

Google's goal is not to make your business successful. Google's goal is to make their business successful. Their webmaster guidelines are a great starting point to become educated about SEO but should not be were you stop your SEO education. The more educated you become with SEO, the better you can decide for yourself about what is best for your business. I don't blindly follow advice from a for-profit company that has broken their own guidelines multiple times. Knowing the Google guidelines lets you better asses your risk level for your project and that is useful.

[fathom]

I will agree mostly with goodroi but where I will differ is saying that the Guidelines are merely a guide and not an absolute rigid source of information that never changes.

I doubt what are the guidelines today will be the same in 2020. So if you start your education today and follow the guideline today, but slowly drift away from appreciating their precise ever-changing language you could be soon violating them without ever knowing.

[FranticFish]

Correlation != cause.

The title is a direct on-page ranking factor, but the meta description is NOT a direct on-page factor.

No one factor determines how well a web page will rank, and a page could score poorly, not at all, or even negatively on one (or more) factors and still rank because it scores highly on other factors. For example, every now and then someone posts here because they spot a ranking page with hidden text on it - which Google strictly forbid.

If you want to understand why pages rank then you need to look at all the factors. There are a number of studies run every year in the SEO community to share these factors. That's a good place to start.

Google's guidelines on titles and descriptions are generally regarded as good practise, and deviating from them is generally considered unwise.

[fathom]

It is certainly true about the 200, possibly more factors but the LAWS OF DIMINISHING RETURNS also apply. e.g. [en.m.wikipedia.org...]

Short of all factors offering equal value no matter how much or how limiting those factors are (which generally isn't the case) ... If the top 63 domains have perfect natural external links and great internal keyword anchor references and maybe even a nice keyword oriented title element all the other leveraging you can do with the remaining197 (not including those that are actually tied to the three I noted) will only get you to position #64.

You can certainly manipulate a few others that might gain you some temporary relief for lackluster results but wasting time & effort on all the other factors will ensure you are under-productive.

[EditorialGuy]

I will agree mostly with goodroi but where I will differ is saying that the Guidelines are merely a guide and not an absolute rigid source of information that never changes.

It's also important to understand the difference between guidelines and regulations (a.k.a. "the spirit of the law" vs. "the letter of the law"). Too many SEOs and site owners have the attitude that, if a practice or apparent loophole isn't explicitly forbidden by Google, it's okay--as in "I didn't sell links, I sold guest posts that just happened to contain links."

Google's Webmaster guidelines include the statement:

"These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behavior, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here. It's not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn't included on this page, Google approves of it. "

That warning seems pretty clear to me.

[aristotle]

To return to the original topic, the OP was shocked to discover that Google gives high rankings to some sites that blatantly violate its guidelines, and wants to know how this can happen.

[fathom]

Google prefers machine solutions such as algorithms which are scalable so when deceptive technique are detected with one listing that same devaluation can occur on millions of similar listings. However, machine solutions tend to require exacting instructions to detect an infinite number of variables and Googlebot, PENGUIN, PANDA, etc., can never be that granular while not unfairly producing false positives.

Google clearly spells out reciprocal linking schemes e.g. [support.google.com...]

Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking

But defining PRECISELY what EXCESSIVE is, is a tad problematic.

@EditorialGuy whether I agree with you are not defining precisely what is a deceptive technique requires Google's Webspam Team's judgment. If say "Link to me and I'll link to you" isn't considered deceptive at one... That warning seem a tad ambiguous.

I certainly understand what they mean... But I'm not their average webmaster either.

[netmeg]

And there's always the case that just because you get away with something today doesn't mean you will get away with it tomorrow. Sometimes it takes a while for Google to catch up. Sometimes it takes days. Sometimes it takes months. Sometimes it takes years.