After years of professionals asking Google what makes them happy as far as getting their website indexed and acheiving higher Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERPs), Google released “Google’s SEO Starter Guide” in order to provide information to webmasters to help their Google SEO.

The 22 page document provides best practices in the most common areas to improve SEO, including improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, as well as ways to use Google’s Webmaster Tools in order to identify problems with SEO in these areas.

I have outlined the basic points that this document covers. I recommend webmasters and anyone looking to get a basic understanding of the different aspects that should be addressed to improve SEO. Download “Google’s SEO Starter Guide” here.

1. Create Unique, Accurate Page Titles
   • Accurately describe the page’s content
   • Create unique title tags for each page
   • Use brief, but descriptive titles
2. Make use of the “description” meta tag
   • Accurately summarize the page’s content
   • Use unique descriptions for each page
3. Improve the structure of your URLs
   • Use words in URLs
   • Create a simple directory structure
   • Provide one version of a URL to reach a document
4. Make your site easier to navigate
   • Create a naturally flowing hierarchy
   • Use mostly text for navigation
   • Use “breadcrumb” navigation
   • Put an HTML sitemap page on your site, and use an XML Sitemap file
   • Consider what happens when a user removes part of your URL
   • Have a useful 404 page
5. Offer quality content and services
   • Write easy-to-read text
   • Stay organized around the topic
   • Use relevant language
   • Create fresh, unique content
   • Offer exclusive content or services
   • Create content primarily for your users, not search engines
6. Write better anchor text
   • Choose descriptive text
   • Write concise text
   • Format links so they’re easy to spot
   • Think about anchor text for internal links too
7. Use heading tags appropriately
   • Imagine you’re writing an outline
   • Use headings sparingly across the page
8. Optimize your use of images
   • Use brief, but descriptive filenames and alt text
   • Supply alt text when using images as links
   • Store images in a directory of their own
   • Use commonly supported filetypes
9. Make effective use of robots.txt
   • Use more secure methods for sensitive content
10. Be aware of rel=”nofollow” for links
11. Promote your website in the right ways
    • Blog about new content or services
    • Don’t forget about offline promotion
    • Know about social media sites
    • Add your business to Google’s Local Business Center
    • Reach out to those in your site’s related community
12. Make use of free webmaster tools
13. Take advantage of web analytics services

To read the entire document, download “Google’s SEO Starter Guide” here.