Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 11:55 AM
Note: The SEO Starter Guide has since been updated.
Webmasters often ask us at conferences or in the Webmaster Help Group, "What are some simple ways that I can improve my website's performance in Google?" There are lots of possible answers to this question, and a wealth of search engine optimization information on the web, so much that it can be intimidating for newer webmasters or those unfamiliar with the topic. We thought it'd be useful to create a compact guide that lists some best practices that teams within Google and external webmasters alike can follow that could improve their sites' crawlability and indexing.
Our Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide covers around a dozen common areas that webmasters might consider optimizing. We felt that these areas (like improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, and more) would apply to webmasters of all experience levels and sites of all sizes and types. Throughout the guide, we also worked in many illustrations, pitfalls to avoid, and links to other resources that help expand our explanation of the topics. We plan on updating the guide at regular intervals with new optimization suggestions and to keep the technical advice current.
So, the next time we get the question, "I'm new to SEO, how do I improve my site?", we can say, "Well, here's a list of best practices that we use inside Google that you might want to check out."
Update on July 22, 2009: The SEO Starter Guide is now available in 40 languages!
Our Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide covers around a dozen common areas that webmasters might consider optimizing. We felt that these areas (like improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, and more) would apply to webmasters of all experience levels and sites of all sizes and types. Throughout the guide, we also worked in many illustrations, pitfalls to avoid, and links to other resources that help expand our explanation of the topics. We plan on updating the guide at regular intervals with new optimization suggestions and to keep the technical advice current.
So, the next time we get the question, "I'm new to SEO, how do I improve my site?", we can say, "Well, here's a list of best practices that we use inside Google that you might want to check out."
Update on July 22, 2009: The SEO Starter Guide is now available in 40 languages!
- Arabic
- Bulgarian
- Catalan
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Chinese (Traditional)
- Croatian
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- English
- English (GB)
- Filipino
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Greek
- Hebrew
- Hindi
- Hungarian
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Latvian
- Lithuanian
- Norwegian
- Polish
- Portuguese (BR)
- Portuguese (PT)
- Romanian
- Russian
- Serbian
- Slovak
- Slovenian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Thai
- Turkish
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
283 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 283 of 283Thanks so much..... Good guide for beginners.
Nice starter guide, especially for beginners.
Ok, i have a question that i haven't seen asked before, and is kind of specific:
With the whole idea of putting keywords in in URLs, is this:
http://Ionisis.com/?x=example-page-title
the same thing, in google's eyes as this:
http://Ionisis.com/example-page-title
I ask this because i noticed that many SEO tools out there will count instances of a keyword that is a part of the file path (even if it is modded on the server side); but they ignore them if they are variables; yet i have seen these in BOLD in google's search results.
I went through a bit of work to convert our content management system to include the page title as a parameter, but after it appeared that it would not be useful, i reversed the modifications until i can determine the usefulness. I don't like how long it makes the urls anyway...
very informative, helpful and useful. thanks for the basic guide about SEO. Thanks to google.
far to much information about SEO on the internet. But this post helped. thanks for the pdf
Thanks for the very helpful information about SEO.I can improve my website's performance in Google because Google every time help us.How do I improve my site......this information get them Google.
This information was helpful, but I noticed a lot of this advice was difficult for those of us who have a website hosted by Live. Since I cannot verify my account with google due to not be able to enter codes in the heading of my site, it makes it difficult to optimize, etc. Do you have any tips for us Live website owners?
Good information for all seo buddies. As a seo spelist I just want to say that If some one wants to get high rankings, it is easier to do so with unique content. Try to use as much original content as possible on your web pages.
ebizoptimize.com
seems some goods in it
Thanks, this is the guide that we need.
On-page related factors are important, but more important off-page factors are.
nice article
Thanks for standardizing the information. Making it official, makes it very easy for beginners like me to build upon, as against the tons of information floating around with questionable credibility.
I hope is secert seo
Now this is going to assist alot of people and getting traffic is becomming easier do to this article.
Nice begginer SEO guide :)
Very good..
Thanks for the great SEO Guide! Much appreciated! It is better to hear from the Lion instead of listening to the many "lambs" out there!
it is very useful for seo starters...
Excellent guide with resourceful information...
really A very useful guide! *Cheers*
http://www.theosoftindia.com
Thanks for such a great resource.
I started a website for beginner webmasters to find all the information needed in one spot. Im going to link to this article as well. Thanks for the useful information and the easy to read format. I appreciate it! http://freesiteinfo.info
Nice guide
Plz help me How can i add my Weebly blog in Google analystic
Wow post !! really helpful
Its really great and clearly explained...
Is this information still valid and applicable (i.e. desc tags) since it was written two years ago?
I am pleased that everyone is trying to help us understand how to put website together. But, when I open the html option, I have never seen where it shows "header.title or body". What gives?
I cannot find this site: https://sites.google.com/site/cjskonarthome on the web?????
Please help. I am trying to expose this site by adding words in the html???
Thank you, Larry
Very nice info!
Excellent Guideline for starters SEO like me. thanks Google. I am always search what google like or not like there are many site who give us information but this blog really clear my all confusion !!! Thanks GOOGLE.. You always Proof you are great....
thanks for the SEO guide.. as it is more helpful for SEO beginners to know what actual SEO is and benifits of SEO.
thanks again for the informative pdf.
I run a green energy blog (http://greenorbz.com). I want to enhance my SE rankings. I wanted to do it myself coz it will be a leaning experience and can get it done for free!!One of my friends recommended this site. I am yet to conquer the guide but from the comments and the reco I am hoping to learn and improve my search ranking to a great extent.
Thanks a lot google and Kishore!!
Excellent stuff google. I'm new to this and will be trying out the tips on my friends website Http://www.ukcharityevents.com
Thanks again !
Can someone validate why URL with no-www is better than with www.
I just changed my http://www.techgyo.com to http://techgyo.com but some plugins stopped working in my wordpress blog
I would say Google has been very webmaster friendly with easy to optimize and understand tools. Most of the Webmasters at Elite Web Studio in Manchester are using Google in the UK specially in Manchester area for Search Engine Optimization(SEO) purposes. It had brought great results and good business. SEO with Google had been successful for us at www.elite-web.co.uk
Thank You
Its verion 1.1 dated Nov. 08. Is there a newer version of the doc.?
-Chandra.
The SEO starter guide and SEO tutorial information is very good and it'll be very helpful for the SEO beginners. These are the main things which we need to remember while doing SEO.
Absolutely great post. Good to see straight talk and a guide from a valid source to dispel all the baseless SEO stories out there. Thanks for sharing Gregory Burrus
Can this SEO Starter guide be shared with others or it must be downloaded from here only?
Take it from Google! This is what all SEO experts should know.
thanks bro for this information, visit back to download ebook gratis, please :)
But we want it in Tamil.. Now i think it is not available
Thanks for useful information Makes my job easier when I understand better!
so nice guide line for any one could easily learn about SEO. thanks a lot.
Vielen Dank für den Update eures SEO Guides - auch wenn ich JOhn Deck in seinem Kommentar recht gebe, SEO ist nicht so schwer zu erklären aber immer mit viel Arbeit umzusetzen
I am a novice to these things such as webmaster, sitemap and seo. thanks for providing a ebook on the issue.
thanx for the information. expect that it will help me in making my blog better. thank you again
This is very fair for those of us needing an seo guide for beginners.
Especially when some of it seems so difficult and is always changing.
Hi all,
Would anyone knoe where I can get this kind of document for keywords?
I have a printed version but can't find the url link anywhere - would anyone know?
thanks
Glad I found your SEO help pdf as IO have a new online store and this will be of great help
thanks to Google web master tools providing this information.
Wonder Masters, Thank You. Very impressing and helping guide. Learned a lot. I am new to this tech. Came across when searching What to do Next after creating a Blog (findself - ifindi). Requesting much more step by step guidance (via gmail?) from these Wonder Masters. Thanking You again and with High Regards.
like this...
Finally I came across this blog that I've been looking for ages. This ebook is handy for me on learning seo. Many Thanks.
Well Wonder Masters. I am still new. Selected Travel Template powered by Blogger on conceptual considerations after going through many. That is the mark of Google and I am a fan of Google. Still Guidance is requested from Learned, Helping and Wonder Masters to wayout any of the 2 options. 1. Sticking a Wall Paper to the walls, inside template. Or 2. To add above the template signature as " Welcome to the Antique Voyages's Vessel". Any Way Pl? - Thanking you again with regards plus Best Wishes.
I blog commented on a site yesterday and today I note that because of that one comment I am getting 176 links for the same site. Will I get penalized by google for getting so many links in one day ?
The my is missing some important information. Do not think for a second that Google is telling you exactly how to SEO your site for their bots. That never has and never will be done by them
This is very helpful article for seo beginners .
Good info for seo beginner T Y
I appreciate your effort for supply this type of vital information and sure I'll come again across your blog when you will share something new.
I too think it's a nice gesture of Google to give away this guide. It helps you get started well. Thanks a lot!
How can we optimize a dynamic website, If we a website and the all website is in Flash. then what will we do....... please reply me quicklyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Is this guide still good for optimizing, or there is an updated version taking into account all the changes in the last years?
Thanks for Great post. Nice guide for the uninitiated. i really like this article. Never use black hat Seo.
wowow. its really a cool idea About SEO and link building. definitely 5*
One of the best PDFs ever written by Google for webmaster! Its the holy bible at our SEO firm. And we have a copy printed out for every potential client to read.
My company had some bad experiences with some SEO Companies. I would like to know the way to find a professional SEO Company which can deliver the result.hamhee
thank your very informative and usefull post for me .how get the more back links in my site .tips plz
As a copywriter for a web design company, my knowledge of SEO, before reading your guide, was practically non-existant - but now I've thoroughly read the guide, I feel much happier. Thank you Google.
Thanks for this great great great information. Here I found this guide in most of the language but I am very unhappy because Bengali language is not in there, I am from Bangladesh. Why Google are not doing translate this guide in Bengali? Bengali SEO guys will more friendly with google.
How about an SEO starter guide specifically to optimize Blogger/Blogspot posts for Google?
Failing that how about a chapter? Or how about at least acknowledging the fact that some of your tips, e.g. "Make Use of the 'Description' Meta Tag," work for Blogger in only the most cumbersome ways?
Do Blogger and Google personnel ever talk to each other?
The SEO world is changing dramatically! The basics shared here are so good but I think its time to bring in some info for the intermediate users to utilize the best practices in off-page & social media too! Let's renovate the web & SEO world-over!
This allows me to use webmaster tools for supporting Indonesian language..
IT gives us the seo traning and it is good
great sir,
thanks for publishing...
Dear Google
I just read all your E-book and when I needed an answer if you had to make "caps" in your site title, but seems not really I was smarter ...
Can you help me with what your views are on it?
Sincerely, Thomas
SEO Guide PDF Not complete
Best guide all SEO professionals or newbies on internet ever!!! I am sure this will help many newbies and the most important thing is it is available in so many languages, that's really great and provides much attention to this guide.
thumbs up!!!thanks for this info...it helps a lot..
Thanks for the guide. I learned many things about SEO from this guide.
Great Post Google
To Think I just saw that pdf
The page says it was modified in 2009, are these SEO technique still effective.
Hi everyone,
Since over a year has passed since we published this post, we're closing the comments to help us focus on the work ahead. If you still have a question or comment you'd like to discuss, free to visit and/or post your topic in our Webmaster Central Help Forum.
Thanks and take care,
The Webmaster Central Team
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