

Google SEO Starter Guide [pdf] - matant
https://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

======
jarrett
I would love it if Google published an official answer to the perennial client
question: "Why can't you get my site to the top of the SERPs for [insert
competitive keywords here]?"

My answer is usually along these lines: "Your site is competing for placement
with many other professionally-built sites. If I'm doing my job properly, and
so are the other web developers, none of us is or should be _entitled_ to top
placement. Also, placement depends heavily on factors that are solely in
_your_ control as the site owner, such as the quality of the content."

But when web devs say this, clients sometimes think we're just trying to shirk
responsibility. So I would be really happy if I could point them to an
official statement from Gogole that conveys roughly the same message.

~~~
Matt_Cutts
Thanks for the suggestion. Here's a related video we've done to educate people
about why they shouldn't care as much about trying to rank #1 for trophy
phrases that might not even convert that well:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21BF_IVU10I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21BF_IVU10I)

But your suggestion is slightly different and a good one.

~~~
captainSalad
Hey Matt, one question m8! If You/Google are against people building links
that aren’t earned, why do you/they allow advertisers to use the add words
platform to sell “link building” services? These links aren't "earned" or
natural, or are they???

Google “link building” to see adds that state "Guaranteed Page One Ranking"!

Im not a smart guy (not at all) but to me, logically if you/google allow this
on your addwords platform then "link building" must be okay, but only from
these _specific_ addword companies? right? What am I missing?

~~~
NeedJobSecurity
Google organic and paid resutlts are 2 different things even though both
showing up together on the same page, probably completely different
departments and at least different rules and regulation apply. You can
advertise for anything you want as long as it complies to the adwords terms
and conditions.

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ericcholis
Some worthwhile alternatives:

[http://moz.com/blog/perfecting-onpage-optimization-for-
ecomm...](http://moz.com/blog/perfecting-onpage-optimization-for-ecommerce-
websites)

[http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo](http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo)

(PDF: [http://static.seomoz.org/files/SEOmoz-The-Beginners-Guide-
To...](http://static.seomoz.org/files/SEOmoz-The-Beginners-Guide-To-
SEO-2012.pdf))

~~~
rfnslyr
Why was this downvoted? Are these guides not good?

~~~
crockstar
I'm biased but I always recommend that anyone interested in SEO start with the
Beginner's Guide. It is a fantastic resource that is updated regularly
frequently and I find it easier for folks to grasp than many of the
alternatives.

It's not "straight from the horse's mouth" as is the case with the Google
guide (which frankly what Google wants to drive rankings does not always tie
up nicely with what actually seems to drive rankings in practice), but I
always have users start there and then look further afield if they're still
interested.

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ddedden
This is a good start, but the guide is actually really old - the copyright is
from 2010.

Some of this stuff is no longer valid.

~~~
Matt_Cutts
We wrote the guide to be pretty evergreen. If there's anything you see that's
out of date, just mention it and we'll look into updating it.

~~~
fwdbureau
In the section about 'alt' tags, "If a user is viewing your site on a browser
that doesn't support images" sounds like something coming from a very old
text. I wonder if that's still relevant for anyone. The second part of the
sentence (screenreaders) taught me something, though!

~~~
ry0ohki
Blind people still use browsers like this, it's a 508 compliant standard if
nothing else.

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mbesto
I read this awhile back and it's great.

Curious honest question to the SEOs out there - other than present me with a
strategy, is there anything specifically an SEO can offer to my site? As far
as I can tell, any gimmick or scheme an SEO could do previously is now
effectively non-existent since the Penguin and Hummingbird updates to Google.
Is there anything outside of the standard stuff that _I_ have to do that can
make my site stand out?

~~~
BetterLateThan
Google has been using regular people like you and me as scouts for years.

We all have certain patterns and interests and the order of priorities - and
Google know them all. They are the sysadmin of the Internet.

If we save a link, share a link or return to a page more than X times in
$period, G. knows we think it's valuable. Multiply by the number of Google
users who share $this_interest.

Conversely, any freshly created Twitter account associated with a freshly
created Gmail account registered from an Indian IP has little authority in any
field.

Any abnormal activity is an eyesore to Google algorithms and jumps out right
away.

If your site sucks, you can't make Google think it doesn't. Fancy crap won't
make your boring content look attractive. SEO today is customer satisfaction,
disruption, uniqueness.

It doesn't matter any more what you say about your site - it's what actions of
other people, real people, not your shills, say about your site.

This is, very roughly, how it works.

Source: SEO work since 2003, including a year as Google page quality rater.

~~~
rjbwork
So you're saying that the old PageRank and hubs/authorities algos are
completely irrelevant these days? Its all simply based upon user behavior?

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doughj3
Misread as "Google CEO Starter Guide" and expected a tongue-in-cheek critique
of Larry Page.

~~~
3825
Well, your query is funnier[0]

    
    
        > Showing results for "Google SEO Starter Guide"
    
        > No results found for "Google CEO Starter Guide"
    

[0]
[https://www.google.com/search?q="Google+CEO+Starter+Guide"](https://www.google.com/search?q="Google+CEO+Starter+Guide")

~~~
hartator
Haha, I have this thread now. GJG! Good Job Google! <3

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noveltysystems
SEO has evolved however much of the published SEO advice is stuck in the past.
People are proclaiming "SEO is dead"... that will only be true the day people
stop using search engines to find information, more like "SEO has changed".
There's a new SEO in town. What exactly is the new SEO you ask?

Check out my full answer here: [https://medium.com/on-
startups/f15264e5d790](https://medium.com/on-startups/f15264e5d790)

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JTon
I'm not a webmaster but skimmed the document anyways. Really good read for
those of us not very familiar with SEO terms and practices in general. It was
easily digestible.

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trg2
I have an online SEO training class, but frequently refer people back to this
doc before they get started. This is a great refresher, thanks for sharing.

Edit: SEO checklist is [http://www.clickminded.com/seo-
checklist/](http://www.clickminded.com/seo-checklist/)

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techaddict009
This guide is 3 years old. I think lot many stuffs have changed today.

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user24
sadly I know people who respond to this with "Yeah but why would you trust
what Google say, they don't want to tell you how to game the system".

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briankim
Thanks for sharing

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JonoBB
Yeah, this is all good and everything. But to get to the top in a competitive
market, there is usually very little option but to buy high quality links.

~~~
Matt_Cutts
That's a really bad long-term strategy.

~~~
hopeandglory
TravelSupermarket have been doing this as a long-term strategy and get away
with it.

[http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/webmasters/...](http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/webmasters/travelsupermarket/webmasters/u56C6Y-Wwkk/3CccKZ6xU4oJ)

I'm hoping someone from Google can explain, or at least commit to investigate
why the leading brand in our niche (travel) has escaped a Penguin 2.0
demotion. It may come across as sour grapes as yes, we were demoted following
Penguin 2, due to links built by an SEO agency in 2008 that we have tried
(pre-pengiun) to have removed for years, despite passing a manual link review
and having a manual penalty removed, the algorithm clearly has no discretion
and re-penalised us for the same issue, however the fact remains that the
largest brand, a household name, in our niche is engaging in far worse and at
a much greater scale and continues to do so that has left them top of the pile
for a huge number of very lucrative search terms.

Here is just a small sample of paid links, paid blog posts and article
submissions clearly designed to manipulate the SERP's that are no doubt paying
huge dividends for them. Isn't it about time Google stepped in and stopped
these brands being so well protected, whether it be from manual or algorithmic
penalties. We've been watching their dominance in the travel market for 2-3
years now and assumed that one day Google would take a look but so far nothing
and now we are in a position where we are laying off staff due to factors
outside of our control (and accepted by the search quality team), whilst the
largest and most active spammy link buyers in our niche go from strength to
strength.

[http://www.heatheronhertravels.com/](http://www.heatheronhertravels.com/)
paid [http://1000fights.com/how-to-kiss-correctly/](http://1000fights.com/how-
to-kiss-correctly/) paid
[http://1familyvacation.blogspot.com/2009_04_26_archive.html](http://1familyvacation.blogspot.com/2009_04_26_archive.html)
paid post [http://2backpackers.com/8940/usa/fleet-week-san-francisco-
tr...](http://2backpackers.com/8940/usa/fleet-week-san-francisco-travel-
photos-1) paid post [http://2nomads1narrative.com/2012/07/03/guest-post-
signature...](http://2nomads1narrative.com/2012/07/03/guest-post-signature-
dishes-of-india/) paid post [http://acrossandabroad.com/2011/08/23/dubai-
holidays-diving-...](http://acrossandabroad.com/2011/08/23/dubai-holidays-
diving-in-dubai/) paid post [http://activetap.com/554567-Flights-Viva-
Prague.html](http://activetap.com/554567-Flights-Viva-Prague.html) paid post
[http://alcudiaholidays.org.uk/reasons-to-
visitalcudia](http://alcudiaholidays.org.uk/reasons-to-visitalcudia) paid post
[http://allfiji.com.au/travel/fiji-
beaches/](http://allfiji.com.au/travel/fiji-beaches/) paid post
[http://allfrance.com.au/the-best-budget-hotels-in-
paris/](http://allfrance.com.au/the-best-budget-hotels-in-paris/) paid post
[http://allthailand.com.au/touring-thailand-top-tours-in-
thai...](http://allthailand.com.au/touring-thailand-top-tours-in-thailand/)
paid post [http://allusa.com.au/americas-greatest-
parks/](http://allusa.com.au/americas-greatest-parks/) paid post
[http://archive.anfieldroad.com/news-
archive/201009063972/fc-...](http://archive.anfieldroad.com/news-
archive/201009063972/fc-utrecht-v-liverpool-%E2%80%93-travel-
information.html/) paid post [http://archive.anfieldroad.com/news-
archive/201103084572/a-g...](http://archive.anfieldroad.com/news-
archive/201103084572/a-guide-to-braga.html/) paid post
[http://aussietopia.org/2011/03/](http://aussietopia.org/2011/03/) paid post
[http://aussietopia.org/category/cities/melbourne/](http://aussietopia.org/category/cities/melbourne/)
paid

~~~
NeedJobSecurity
Algorithmic penalties could be already in place for this domain. I would be
surprised if google places any weight on these type of links you posted.
However due to their overall activity they may be getting a lot genuine stuff
their way too, which could be a reason why they still rank above others in
this "black-grey-heavy" industry.

~~~
hopeandglory
I hear what you are saying, but if a site can rank position 1 for almost all
relevant search terms with an algorithmic penalty then clearly the penalty is
not severe enough. They really have our niche by the balls so I can't believe
there is a penalty. It's disheartening to know that google simply will not
acknowledge this. We've reported on WMF a few times and made various other
attempts to make them aware of this blatant 'cheating'. Why can't they (Cutts
himself viewed this thread) at least say what you have said. "They have a
penalty, but we still rank them higher than everyone else" or as is more
likely the case "they are a HUGE adwords customer so we wouldn't want to upset
them". It stinks.

~~~
butler14
They also have a shit tonne of high authority links from pretty much every
news website going. What's your point?

It's easy to pick holes in pretty much anyone's backlink profile in a
competitive market.

------
granttimmerman
Warning: This guide is 3-4 years old and may have some outdated techniques.

