The top-ranking HTML editor on Google is an SEO scam

I'd put my money that they included 'online scoreboard' as the first phrase in the `<meta name="description" content="Online scoreboard"> tag per Google's recommendations for SEO which put them ahead.[0] Also, to this one point of many when searching for `online leaderboard` you get the top spot because leaderboard is not included in the other website's description.

The network tab in devtools isn't loading Google Analytics on you site. I think the bigger conspiracy is that Google isn't giving high search result rankings to websites that don't include Google Analytics. Part of the reason is they use time on site after following through a search result link as a dimension of quality for that search result. If that makes sense? They give 10 search results and their algorithm can tell if the search result satisfies the end user's request if they don't go back to the search results but rather continue on that site.

Lastly, clicking through a search result to your site might not give the searching user what they are looking for. Amazon discovered every time a person has to click they are far less likely to purchase an item so they created one click. Your competition makes it visually clear what their site does. You probably would get far more retention on the original click to your site if you have an image of what the end product looks like in a hero, front and center (with all the meta tags described in Google's document on SEO of course.) That way people won't click back to the search results page which Google is tracking as a dimension.

[0] https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.dk/en/...

I only switched Google Analytics off last week! I had it on for the whole time before and it made no difference.

> I'd put my money that they included 'online scoreboard' as the first phrase in the `<meta name="description" content="Online scoreboard"> tag per Google's recommendations for SEO which put them ahead.[0] Also, to this one point of many when searching for `online leaderboard` you get the top spot because leaderboard is not included in the other website's description.

While I like the thought progression you're going through, this is a "not really." Google has confirmed a number of times over the past 15+ years (going back to the Matt Cutts era) and even in the document you linked that the meta description does nothing to influence ranking in the SERPs. However, the meta title does influence ranking.

I'm on mobile, so unable to dig in right now - but my guess is either this has something to do with the meta title, or the specific anchor text of the backlinks that are getting inserted via the app in question.

Aside from that, agree 100% with your other assessments.

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I mean, you did read the part where the HTML cleaners were adding links to the content they were “cleaning” right? Whether it’s what is causing the higher ranking or not, they are certainly trying to do something underhanded.

This (and another comment you made deeper down) make me think you may be stuck on the mechanical/technical side of SEO. While it is important, it is not nearly as important as it used to be, say 10 years ago. It's probably much less than 50% of your overall ranking. Yes, you need to get it right, but relevant back links and the associated link text on the sites linking TO you will have a far greater affect. Google prioritizes what OTHERS say about your site more than any factors you can control. Mainly because people abuse those factors significantly.

This is not how SEO works. Putting a keyword in your page's title/text/etc can help somewhat, but it's a much weaker signal than (say) a couple thousand keyword links from seemingly unrelated sites.

I think they will use it for a fallback description so it could affect the CTR. But one that short probably doesn't really help.

This. The number of sites you see following pretty much none of Google's suggestions or industry practice, but dominating search results due to a combination of content and links, is massive. If people stopped and thought about what they're looking at, the "selling technical SEO knowledge" industry would pretty much die.