Google released the third iteration of its SEO Starter Guide today. This version is about half the size of the second version and is written primarily for people who are new to SEO.
The Google SEO Starter Guide was originally published in 2008 as a PDF version. It was last updated in 2017.
what changed Google announced that the new version is a “paperback version of the SEO Starter Guide”. Google also said that this new version has “a better focus on an early stage audience and the topics we think someone just dipping their toes into SEO should focus on and why.”
Google has removed:
Glossary section: Instead, Google explained the individual terms in context on the page.
Structured data section: Google removed this section because it said it’s a “more advanced topic that beginners don’t need to think about.” Additionally, Google said that “if someone is using a content management system (CMS) like Wix or Squarespace, they can try using a plugin and not have to worry about learning how to add code to their website “.
Mobile compatibility section: Google said, “most new sites and platforms are already mobile friendly”, so Google decided this was no longer necessary.
Site performance analysis section: Google removed this to keep the paper focused on early SEOs and said that this would be “next step” SEO work and is “a more advanced topic.”
Google added:
Google compressed a lot of content, including:
“You’re on Google” sections.: Simplified into one section that focuses on a quick way to check if your site is on Google and the first steps an owner should take if they don’t see their site in Google Search results.
“Need and SEO” section.: Google has a standalone document, so Google has condensed it into two sentences and linked to the full guide.
Title and Snippets Section Links: Google shortened this section considerably in favor of more comprehensive stand-alone documents.
Images section: For an initial audience, alt text is the most important targeting.
“Turn off Google Search” section.: Google said, “while it’s an important topic to mention, it’s probably not why the reader is working through the guide.”
Links section: Google compressed this section without changing the message about them, emphasizing their useful aspects and why links are useful for users and search engines.
Promotion of a site: Google also compressed this section while linking to Google for Creators since they have a more detailed guide on this topic.
Site structure section: This section remained unchanged, but Google removed these sections:
Navigation section: Instead, he focused on linking to important site URLs more aggressively.
section 404: Google said, “We don’t really care about 404 pages and site owners should do what makes sense for their users.”
Explicit settings for breadcrumbs: This is a more advanced topic, so Google removed it.
More to come. Google added that it hopes to never change this getting started guide, but that it will “continue to make our documentation clearer and easier to understand in the coming months.”
Why we care The Google SEO Beginner’s Guide is something that many old and new SEOs have read at some point in their career. Now that it’s been updated, you should all probably take a quick look to see what’s changed.
If you want to see the old version, here it is at Wayback Machine and you can compare it with the new version live.
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About the author
Barry Schwartz is a contributing editor at Search Engine Land and a member of the SMX event programming team. He owns RustyBrick, a web consulting firm based in New York. He also runs Round table of search engines, a popular search blog about very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.
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