The Google Webmaster Guidelines (now called Google Search Essentials) are a set of best practices to help websites rank well in search results. They cover these key areas:
Technical Guidelines:
Quality Guidelines:
Content Guidelines:
Security Guidelines:
Behavioral Guidelines:
They help website owners understand what they need to do to ensure their websites are crawled, indexed, and ranked in Google’s organic search results.
What Will I Learn?
There are 3 main sections in the Google Search Essentials Guidelines:
Think of these like the fundamentals of search engine optimisation (SEO).
It’s free to have your website listed in Google search results.
But your website must meet the technical requirements to make sure that Google can properly crawl and index the site:
These are the three minimum technical requirements:
These are easy to fulfil and most websites are eligible to be indexed straight out of the box.
Google is serious about spam.
Google’s goal is to help users find trustworthy and relevant information quickly. The algorithm is designed to identify spammy websites and remove them automatically.
That’s why it’s important to follow SEO best practices and ensure your website doesn’t use spammy techniques.
These are the main ones to watch out for:
And more! Google has implemented quite a few spam policies over the years to protect users.
It’s a good idea to read through them and make sure that your website is compliant.
Google has always tried to walk a fine line of guiding website owners without giving away exactly how their algorithm works.
The best practices section of the Google Webmaster Guidelines gives website owners tips on improving their SEO.
It contains things like:
And so much more. Does Google tell you everything?
Short answer: No.
But it is a great starting point to learn about how Google works and what you need to do to rank.
Check out the full version of the Google Webmaster Guidelines here.
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