Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide

SEO Starter Guide

It’s been nearly a decade since Google updated their official SEO Starter Guide. It’s kind of a new starter guide that builds off of previous resources and moves to a web-based delivery of the content. Gone will be the old PDF version and the Webmaster Academy. The new and improved Google SEO Starter Guide includes some noteworthy updates.

The New & Improved Google SEO Starter Guide

SEO for Mobile Websites Google hasn’t updated their SEO Starter Guide in nearly a decade. However, things have really changed in the search arena, and a lot has changed in terms of mobile technology. Half of Internet traffic is happening on a mobile device! Back when Google last updated the guide the best practices were dialed for websites with separate mobile pages. 'Mobilegeddon' never really happened the way it was hyped to, but Google has been very open and transparent about thier plans to make the future mobile-friendly. So it make sense that the updated SEO guide is featuring best practices for creating responsive websites that can be accessed by all devices.  Linking to Other Websites The second noteworthy update in this new version of Google’s SEO Starter Guide is cautionary:

”Be careful who you link to. You can confer some of your site’s reputation to another site when your site links to it.”

The new guide goes over some of the most common ways people can take advantage of another site’s reputation, such as adding links in comments, and it covers how to combat this by using the “nofollow” attribute. Hire an SEO Expert Yes, I do like this one :) After a decade and half in the business I’ve seen first-hand just how much value SEO expertise can add to an organization. Typically, it’s just not feasible to have that depth of expertise in-house. So, hire an SEO expert, and Google’s new SEO Starter Guide does not shy away from this point. In fact, this recommendation is highlighted in the very first chapter of the guide. Google shares details on the types of services an SEO expert can provide, and additional resources explaining how to go about hiring an expert.

Conclusion

For those of you new to SEO, that have limited exposure to SEO, or want to talk to your team about SEO, the Google SEO Starter Guide is the perfect place to start. Before reviewing the new and updated Google SEO Starter Guide, this needs to be the guiding principle for all your SEO activities:

Don’t chase algorithms. SEO is about user experience and the primary goal of SEO is to rank well over the long term.

These are just a couple of the examples of what’s new and notable with Google’s new SEO Starter Guide. Get in touch with us if you’d like to talk more about SEO for your organization or about how we can help you build your next digital experience.

Main photo by Andrew Peloso