Search
Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG) Editor: Matt
Paines
| This News Blog is
dedicated to bringing news, information and innovations targeting the
Search Engine Optimisation industry.
16 December 2008
Google publishes own SEO guide
Search engine optimisers can now boast that their industry has its first official guidebook, with Google publishing its own summary SEO guide online.
But the optimisation market need not have sleepless nights about their livelihood, as the guide falls a long way short of unlocking the secrets of getting first-page rankings for queries. After all if they told you that everyone would be doing it, so no one would be top for long.
Nevertheless, the document offers some excellent SEO starter tips aimed at webmasters who are new to the area of search engine optimisation.
The compact 22-page PDF provides practical tips on the fundamentals of SEO, ranging from URL structure and sitemaps to creating quality content and how to make best use of page titles and description meta tags.
The search giant said that the document first began as an effort to help teams within Google, but it decided it would be just as useful to webmasters.
As an SEO consultant I welcome the guide, we have been doing the same ourselves with free SEO tutorials for years. The fact that Google have gone further than before, much further than the Webmaster Guidelines is a positive step for small sites that cannot afford to employ an SEO. It is also a help to enlighten customer understanding of the work of the SEO professional, hopefully making a distinction between the organisations tha can do the job and those that haven't a clue but sell their services on smoke and mirrors.
XSEOhas an open
policy to SEO, so before you part with any money (with us or anyone
else), it makes sense to make sure you're site is working within the confines
of SEO Best Practice.