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SEO Starter Guide
Google has updated its SEO Starter Guide, first issued in 2008. The new edition is shorter and more focused on the intended audience: “newish website owners and other content creators who would like to learn how to improve their content's presence in search results”.
Over the years the guide had expanded with more topics being added, but generally none removed. In the new streamlined version most sections have been compressed to their core elements and out-of-date sections removed. For example, the section on mobile friendliness has been deleted as most new sites are already mobile friendly.
The guide aims to explain concepts in a more approachable way, without jargon. Where needed, details were added of the “why” behind a given topic or best practice.
Google has tried not to add anything new, but there are some additional sections. One deals with common SEO theories people shouldn’t focus on too much, and there are also new sections on how long it can take to see impact, and on videos.
Google’s blog post outlines the changes in detail and you can access the SEO Starter Guide here.
How Search Works
Google has also launched a new series on YouTube called How Search Works, presented by Gary Illyes an engineer on Google’s Search team. Again targeted towards people starting out with SEO, the aim is to explain Search and the technical processes behind it in understandable terms.
The series will unpack the mechanics behind Search, including crawling, indexing and serving results. It will also look at how you can increase the visibility of your site.
