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 (will
open as a PDF) 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."
