Google’s New SEO Starter Guide: What You Need To Know

Are You Using Blacklisted Backlinks? Check Now

You might have missed this.

But Google brought us an interesting surprise recently.

They decided to revamp their official SEO Starter Guide for the first time in over seven years.

The new Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide is full of useful and interesting information we can all benefit from.

Unfortunately, some of the content in there isn’t clear or specific enough.

It’s not that Google is hiding something from you, it’s that they don’t want to tell you exactly what you need to know to rank higher in their search engines.

 They prefer if you discover that on your own.
 
But fear not, in this article you will learn everything you need to know from the new SEO Starter Guide and how you can implement that information on your site.

Making Your Site Show Up on Google

The first step to rank on Google is having your site in their index. To do so you need to make your site crawlable and indexable.

To help you achieve that, Google suggests you ask yourself a few questions which will help you find out whether your site is being crawled and indexed-

  • Is my website showing up on Google?
  • Do I serve high quality content to users?
  • Is my local business showing up on Google?
  • Is my content fast and easy to access on all devices?
  • Is my website secure?

Let me help you answer each of these questions.

Is Your Website Showing Up On Google?

This question is easy to answer. Simply search for your company or website’s name on Google and see if it shows up.

If I ran a pizza place in London called “Pizza Union” (a company that exists), and I searched for it on Google, I’d see its ranking in there in the first position-

google search

If you don’t find your site, make sure you check outside page 1.

Also, if your name is similar to a large company or if it represents a broad term (for example, if my pizza place was called “London Pizza,” it’d be hard to rank for that term for obvious reasons), don’t despair.

It’s not an SEO problem so much as a naming one.

Are You Serving High Quality Content?

You probably know that creating high-quality content is a prerequisite to rank these days.

Defining “high-quality content” on the other hand isn’t easy.

But way back in my zero link building experiment I noted that Matt Cutts had defined it as-

  • Something that is unique/different/original
  • Useful/helpful to the community
  • Answers common questions in your niche
  • Original research
  • Create videos
  • How to guides and tutorials
  • Create lists of helpful resources

Another way to define the quality of a piece of content is to tie it with its popularity.

If your content attracts links and social shares then we can define it as high-quality.

At the end of the day, people don’t link or share content they deem low-quality.

So, taking this idea into consideration, let’s check how many links and shares your content is getting. We are going to check your content’s link popularity with Ahrefs.

Just drop the URL in Ahrefs Site Explorer to check the number of backlinks you have received and the number of referring domains.

check the number of backlinks

There’s no “right” or “wrong” number of backlinks and referring domains but if you see zero links, you should review the quality of the content.

Next we are going to check the social popularity with another great tool, Buzzsumo.

Just drop your URL into the search bar and then check how many shares your content has gotten-

check social shares

As you can see with the link results above and the popularity on social media we can conclude this is high-quality content.

Hint: You can also use this Wordpress plugin to grab the social shares of all of your content in one click

Don’t worry if you don’t have any links or social shares – it could just be your content promotion wasn’t very effective.

But you should certainly pay close attention to these pages and review them against competing search results for relevant keywords.

Is Your Local Business Showing Up On Google?

Note: If you don’t have a local business, you can skip this part.

Local SEO is extremely important if you run a local business, as it works differently than non-local SEO.

(If you need help with your local SEO, take a look at this list of the best local SEO services).

Both local and non-local SEO need on-site optimisation and links to rank high in the search engines. The main difference lies in that local sites also need citations.

A citation is an online reference to your business’s name, address and phone number (NAP).

Citations work like links, because Google uses them to evaluate the online authority of your business. What makes citations different from links is that the former don’t need a link pointing to your business’s website in order for you to be credited for them.

Getting a NAP is already enough.

To check your local business, repeat what I showed up before; that is, search your business on Google.

Continuing with the pizza place example, I see they show up in the local results.

pizza results

You should then check to see if your business comes up in listings for popular keywords, like “Pizza London” for example.

If your local business doesn’t show up for your target keywords you can use the WhiteSpark Citation Service to get a boost in local rankings.

If you don’t find your place anywhere, you need to add your company with Google My Business.

The process is straightforward:

On the Google My Business website, click on the “Start Now” button.

start now

Once you do so, you will have to add your company’s information, including your business name, your location, the kind of business you run, and your company’s phone number and website.

The process won’t take you more than 5 minutes and will help you get your company listed on Google Maps.

Is My Content Fast And Easy To Access On All Devices?

Your website’s speed not only affects your rankings but it also has a huge impact on user experience.

A 1 second delay in load time can lead to a 7% drop off in conversion and 11% fewer pageviews.

how to increase website speed and conversion rates

To check your page speed, you can use a tool like GTmetrix (or you can check out my free seo tools list to find another appropriate tool.)

page speed

Once you have added your site, GTmetrix will tell you:

  • The performance score
  • The load time
  • The page size
  • The number of requests (i.e., how many requests did GTmetrix have to make to load all your site’s elements; the fewer requests, the better)

page speed analysis

In general, you want a load time under 2 seconds, and a page size under 1 megabyte.

If you find your site to be above those two thresholds, focus on solving the problems GTmetrix shares with you.

Some of the most common problems related to a site’s speed performance are the lack of browser caching, progressive rendering, HTTP compression, among other problems.

If you want to learn more about the most common speed problems you can face, you can read Google’s own PageSpeed Insights rules.

Fortunately, you don’t need to become an expert in speed optimisation to make your website faster.

With the help of W3 Total Cache, a Wordpress plugin with over 1 million downloads and 2,700 5-star reviews, you can optimise your site’s page speed in a few minutes.

Once you install it, you will find there are a large number of sections within the plugin you can check.

enable caching

Before you get overwhelmed, remember you want to optimise for the problems your site has, not for every single possible you may face in the future.

To that end, you want to go back to GTmetrix’ performance review and check the problems they found.

With Pizza Union, you can see they only have one problem: landing page redirects.

In other words, they have a problem with duplicate content, something that can be easily fixed with the help of Yoast SEO.

But if your website has other, more pressing problems, like lack of browser caching (which allows a user’s browser to “save” a page’s version in their “memory”), you want to use W3 Total Cache.

If that was the case, you’d need to go to Browser Cache, which is the seventh element in the menu as shown above.

Generally speaking, W3 Total Cache fixes the most common problems as default, so you may not need to do anything.

As you can see in the image below, W3 Total Cache has already specified the general cache policy:

w3 total cache

Once you have installed W3 Total Cache, you should see an immediate improvement in your site’s speed.

If you don’t, and you don’t know what to do, you should talk to a developer who specializes in site speed optimisation (or learn to increase website speed yourself) to help you out solve the problems GTmetrix indicates.

Another common issue is the lack of a Content Delivery Network (or CDN), which would make the user download your site’s elements from the location of your server.

That means, if your servers are located in Liverpool, and your user is in Los Angeles, Bangkok, or Cape Town, it would take their browser more time to load your page.

But if you used a CDN like MaxCDN, they could download all the elements from the closest server, making the site’s download speed much faster and efficient.

If you click on W3 Total Cache’s General Settings section, you can select the CDN type you want to use, and the plugin will do most of the hard work for you.

CDN

Both the use of W3 Total Cache and a CDN will make your site speed much faster, improving your user experience as well as your rankings.]

You could also use a free plugin like WPSmush to optimize all of your images and reduce your overall page size in just a couple of clicks.

Is My Website Secure?

Back in 2014, Google added the use of SSL to their ranking factors.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. Basically, having a domain with SSL will certify your site’s security.

Because the use of SSL impacts your rankings, you want to make sure you are using it in your site, especially if you accept payments on your site.

You can use the Let’s Encrpyt service which allows you to add a encrypted certification for free.

The easiest way to add a free SSL certification to your site, is by using a server that’s already integrated with Let’s Encrypt, which includes WPXHosting, A2Hosting & Kinsta.

See my full A2 Hosting review, Kinsta review and WPX hosting review for more details.

Once you have the SSL certificate installed on a server level you can use a plugin like Really Simple SSL to enable it on the WordPress level.

If your business is running on Wordpress, check out How To Switch From HTTP To HTTPS (13 Simple Steps) from Cloudliving.

Using Sitemaps

Finally, Google talks about making your content easier to find. On that end, they recommend the use of sitemaps:

A sitemap is a file on your site that tells search engines about new or changed pages on your site.

A sitemap tells Google which pages they should crawl, as well as determine the canonical version (i.e., the correct version) of each page.

Creating a sitemap is easy, you can use a tool like XML Sitemap Generator or, if you use Wordpress, a plugin like Google XML Sitemaps or Yoast SEO.

Once you have the sitemap, you want to add it to the Google Search Console as they explain in this article.

Hiring An SEO Expert

SEO takes a lot of time.

If you are a busy business owner, or if you prefer to focus on other parts of your business (like sales and operations), you want to hire an SEO expert.

As Google says in the Starter Guide:

Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:

  • Review of your site content or structure
  • Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
  • Content development
  • Management of online business development campaigns
  • Keyword research
  • SEO training
  • Expertise in specific markets and geographies
  •  

Finding a trustworthy SEO consultant can be hard.

To help you find the right one, you want to check for the following things:

  • The results they have gotten to their past and current clients. Ask for case studies and references. Make sure they show specific results (e.g., “Our link building campaign attracted 15 high-authority links which helped driving the organic search traffic 20% in 3 months”).
  • The person in charge of your site. You want to make sure the company doesn’t outsource the work or give it to a junior executive with little experience. Make sure you talk to the person in charge of your site before signing off.
  • The link building tactics they use. Make sure they don’t use black hat tactics, unless that’s what you need (for example, if you are in the gambling industry). Ask them to show you specific links they’ve gotten and how they got them.
  • The timeline and deliverables. SEO takes time, but you want them to make progress on a month-per-month basis. At first, they should focus on keyword research, on-site optimisation, and technical SEO. Later, they’ll focus on link building and content creation. Tell them to tell you exactly what steps will be involved and the time each one will take.

(If you are in doubt which company to hire, you can contact my team for help. Feel free to browse our case studies, the tactics we’ll use, and the time you can expect to see results.)

Another important thing to take into consideration is to get started with SEO before you need it.

As Google mentions in the Starter Guide-

If you’re thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you’re considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.

Optimise Your Title Tags and Meta Description

You can have the best content in the world, but if neither Google knows what your page is about nor people understand the content of it, no one will visit your site.

That’s where title tags and meta descriptions come to the rescue.

As you may know, title tags are one of the most important on-site elements of your site.

Google weights the optimisation of your title tags heavily, so if you use the right keywords in it, Google will likely reward you with better results.

Meta descriptions on the other hand will help people (and Google) understand what your page is about.

If you do your job correctly, your click-through rate (CTR) will skyrocket, increasing your organic traffic (even if you don’t rank number 1).

Here’s how you optimise your title tag and meta description.

Title Tag Optimisation

First and foremost, your title tags need to have the main keyword of your page.

You can use an exact match of the keyword (that is, the exact keyword for which you want to rank), or simply use it within a phrase.

For example, if you wanted to rank for the keyword “Pizza London,” like in the case of the company we’ve been using so far, you’d need to add that keyword within the title tag.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case:

title tag optimisation

Long are the days where you could stuff your main keywords in your title tags and expect good results.

That’s why you need to get creative and use some SEO copywriting in your title tag.

In the case of the pizza place shown above, you could create a title tag that said something like:

Voted The Best Pizza In London – Pizza Union

If you run a local place or a company with a strong brand, you want to add your brand’s name somewhere in the title tag, especially on the main pages (like the homepage and category pages).

Finally, remember that title tags have a maximum length of 60 characters.

If you exceed that length, it won’t hurt your site. Rather, Google will cut your title tag short in the search results.

Meta Description Optimisation

While title tags matter for improving your page’s rankings, meta descriptions gives them context.

It’s with the meta descriptions where you want to use copywriting to improve your page’s relevancy.

Here’s a good example of a well-written meta description:

meta description

You can see that the company mentions what they offer (Neapolitan pizzas), where they offer them (in central London and Oxford), and how they offer them (in their venues, takeaway, or delivery).

For a local business, that’s a great structure. It’s concise and even actionable.

While in the past the meta description maximum characters were around 155 characters, according to Moz, Google has extended their length to around 300 characters.

Learn how to submit URLs to Google with my search engine submission guide – NO SEO submission software required.

Blocking Unwanted Pages

Your website likely has many pages you don’t want to show up in Google, either because they generate duplicate content, show sensitive information (like user or personal information) or because your users won’t find it useful.

This may not be the case if your site is small and has less than 50 pages or so.

Either way, if you think there are parts of your website you want to block from Google, here’s what you need to do.

First, use a robots.txt, which is a text file webmasters create to instruct search engine robots how to crawl and index pages on their website.

As the name suggests, this is nothing but a simple .txt file you add in your server’s root folder.

Robots.txt have some limitations in its scope. As Google explains:

Robots.txt is not an appropriate or effective way of blocking sensitive or confidential material. It only instructs well-behaved crawlers that the pages are not for them, but it does not prevent your server from delivering those pages to a browser that requests them.

One reason is that search engines could still reference the URLs you block (showing just the URL, no title or snippet) if there happen to be linked to those URLs somewhere on the Internet (like referrer logs).

Also, non-compliant or rogue search engines that don’t acknowledge the Robots Exclusion Standard could disobey the instructions of your robots.txt.

Finally, a curious user could examine the directories or subdirectories in your robots.txt file and guess the URL of the content that you don’t want seen.

What Google is trying to say is that using a robots.txt is only one part of the whole puzzle. If you link internally to a page you want to block, Google may crawl and index it anyway.

If you want to make sure Google doesn’t index a page (even if it crawls it), you want to use a “noindex” tag, which goes in the header of a page.

You can manually add them to every page you want to block, or using a plugin like Yoast SEO.

By using the “noindex” tag, Google will crawl it, but avoid indexing it (and therefore, rank it).

Using Structured Data Markup

The way Google shows up the results has changed dramatically in the past 7 years. One of the biggest changes is the use of structured data markup.

In the words of Google, structured data markup is:

[A] code that you can add to your sites’ pages to describe your content to search engines, so they can better understand what’s on your pages.

Search engines can use this understanding to display your content in useful (and eye-catching!) ways in search results.

That, in turn, can help you attract just the right kind of customers for your business.

In other words, structured data helps users find out more about a site or page without visiting it. This can impact deeply on your CTR and search engine traffic.

Here are some examples to help you see how they look and work:

If you look for a company like Amazon, Google will not only show their site and pages, but also the following:

structured data markup

The information you see on the right represent two different types of structured data markup, the logos and articles ones.

Finally, if you have a local business, Google can show a lot of useful information about it, like in the example below:

local seo

If you aren’t sure whether to use structured data markup in your site, check what your direct and indirect competitors are doing.

If you need help getting started, follow Google’s guides, which explain in more detail how they work.

Once you get started implementing it on your site, use some of Google’s tools like Google Structured Data Markup Helper as well as some useful Wordpress plugins like Yoast SEO and WP SEO Structured Data Schema.

Make sure you test your new markup using a schema tester such as Google Structured Data Testing Tool.

Optimise your images

While people love images, Google can’t read them. That’s why the “alt” tag exists: you describe what the image is about, and Google bases their analysis on it.

In Google words:

If a user is viewing your site using assistive technologies, such as a screen reader, the contents of the alt attribute provide information about the picture.

Optimising your alt tags is simple: add the main keyword (and variations of it) with a descriptive sentence.

Using the pizza example, if you had 10 images of your different pizzas on your homepage, you wouldn’t want to stuff all your images with the same keyword, as Google would consider that unnecessary.

For example, you might set an ALT tag of “The Best Margarita Pizza In London” for your main margarita pizza image.

If you had 3 different images of each of your pizzas, you could add other variations, like:

  • “londons favourite margarita pizza”
  • “pizza margarita”
  • “italian margarita pizza london”

Of course, you should do some keyword research first.

Be relevant with your alt tags and Google will appropriately rank your pages for your desired keywords.

Another important element to consider is the image size.

That’s why I recommend using a service like Smush Image Compression and Optimization.

Once you install it on your WordPress site, the plugin will automatically compress your images making them smaller and easier to load.

SEO for Mobile Websites

Mobile organic traffic has become as important as desktop traffic: in 2017, the latter accounted for 50.3% of all web traffic generated worldwide.

mobile usage

 That means you need to optimise your site for mobile traffic.
 
To optimise your site for mobile traffic you should use responsive web design

By using responsive web design, you are designing your site to automatically adjust itself to any kind of browser and screen size without the need to change URLs or your site’s structure.

A lot of the best WordPress themes are responsive by default, but not everyone runs WordPress so double check if your site is responsive or not.

Google recommends using the Mobile-friendly test to check if pages on your site meet the required criteria.

mobile friendly

You can also check out the Search Console Mobile Usability report to fix mobile usability issues affecting your site.

Integrating AMP

Another way to make your site more mobile friendly is to use the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP for short) format.

AMP is a markup language focused on mobile phones which increases the speed your pages are served to users.

If you run your website with Wordpress and you want to start using AMP, you can use plugin like AMP for WP or Automattic’s own AMP for Wordpress.

Finally, Google recommends you provide the same functionality on all devices (which includes desktop, table, and mobile):

Mobile users expect the same functionality – such as commenting and check-out – and content on mobile as well as on all other devices that your website supports.

In addition to textual content, make sure that all important images and videos are embedded and accessible on mobile devices.

For search engines, provide all structured data and other metadata – such as titles, descriptions, link elements, and other meta-tags – on all versions of the pages.

Wrapping It Up

Google’s updated SEO starter guide doesn’t represent a new way of doing SEO.

Rather, it’s an update to the things we already knew but never heard directly from Google.

Now you know what Google expects from you,  it’s time to get started.

Google will thank you for it.

PRO TIPS: To improve your SEO performance, make sure to use all the Google tools available. Don’t know anything about these tools? Take a look at my list of Google tools.

Stuck in the Google sandbox period? Read my guide to learn how to get out of Google sandbox as quickly as possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start off with SEO?
If you want to start successfully your SEO campaigns & projects, follow the steps below:

  1. Step 1: Define your goals and KPIs
  2. Step 2: Analise your site setup up and create a solid SEO foundation
  3. Step 3: Focus on keywords & topics research
  4. Step 4: Create a content strategy
  5. Step 5: Complete an SEO audit to identify potential SEO issues
  6. Step 6: Track your goal completions
  7. Step 7: Optimise your site based on the on-page SEO factors

If you feel overwhelmed by this information, the best option is to sign up for an SEO course to learn smoothly all the basics (mentioned above) of SEO.

What should I do first in SEO?
If you want to succeed in SEO, you should follow the steps mentioned above. It tells you everything you need to do and when you need to do it.

Is SEO necessary for ranking a website in Google?
SEO is critical if you want to rank a website in Google. Not only will it help Google find your website and index it but it will ensure your website appears at the top of the search results. Google ranking factors focus heavily on SEO which ranges from on-page SEO to link building.

Can you do SEO yourself?
Anyone can do SEO however it takes knowledge and time so if you are short of these then you can hire someone to do your SEO. If you don’t want to invest then you need to do SEO yourself.

200 Responses

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    • Matthew Woodward
      October 29th, 2018 at 9:39 am

      Thanks Shuruti!

  29. best seo company in New York
    10.22.2018

    Continue the good work and people will continue to come to your blog! I have been updating my blogs, as well.

    • Matthew Woodward
      October 22nd, 2018 at 10:03 am

      Thanks very much, I certainly intend to continue :)

  30. PRITAM MALLICK
    10.21.2018

    This can be a very informative and helpful post, very genuine and practical advice. Is actually very great for all. Especially this article is helping to the beginner. Thanks!
    “Seo

    • Matthew Woodward
      October 22nd, 2018 at 10:18 am

      No worries, thanks for your thoughts :)

  31. Cabinet Handles India
    10.19.2018

    Such a great blog. I like your article & website. Thank you so much for share this post.

    • Matthew Woodward
      October 19th, 2018 at 9:43 am

      No problem, I hope it’s helpful.

  32. parastoo
    10.17.2018

    This guide came at just the right time. Nothing can be better than getting SEO tips straight from Google. It was a good thing. Good luck.

    https://dehkadeh-web.ir/

    • Matthew Woodward
      October 17th, 2018 at 9:17 am

      Thanks very much. Glad you found my guide at the right time.

  33. ezone staffing llc
    10.8.2018

    Great Article Mate just loved it the way you have described . even though i have already used some of the blog comment do follow links and it got indexed too. thanks for it once again keep blogging keep growing..

    • Matthew Woodward
      October 8th, 2018 at 10:48 am

      Great minds think alike! Thanks very much and I certainly will do.

  34. SHIPMYCHIP
    10.5.2018

    nice blog

    • Matthew Woodward
      October 5th, 2018 at 9:19 am

      Thanks very much.

  35. Alivenet Solution
    9.21.2018

    I think its better to use SSL for website, as it shows website is secure for user levels. You have described all its advantages perfectly. Thanks…

    • Matthew Woodward
      September 21st, 2018 at 11:49 am

      No problem, thanks for your thoughts.

  36. Kundan Sharma
    9.20.2018

    This is one of the best SEO guides in 2018.
    I learned lots of things from this SEO post.
    Thank you Matthew.
    Looking for more valuable posts from you.

    • Matthew Woodward
      September 21st, 2018 at 11:53 am

      You’re very welcome!

  37. CM Imran
    9.17.2018

    Great SEO post Matt thanks for sharing! pls add more articles on link building.

    • Matthew Woodward
      September 17th, 2018 at 11:02 am

      Thanks a lot! I’ll see what I can do.

  38. tannu
    9.4.2018

    nice article thanks for sharing with us

    • Matthew Woodward
      September 5th, 2018 at 9:00 am

      Not a problem! Thanks for reading, I hope you found it useful.

  39. Joanna
    8.29.2018

    I never thought Google actually recommends SEO. Great piece of information. I wish I read your article years ago. I still vividly remember the days I paid $750 for a not-so-great SEO. I could have done it much better than that using the tips on your blog. However, after several years, I have been running a successful blog and co-founder of a successful company. I like the way you generously giving out information without expecting anything in return. I would love to interview for our new blog post titled Successful bloggers list. Please let me know if you could spare a few minutes? Thanks.

    • Matthew Woodward
      August 31st, 2018 at 10:41 am

      Hey Joanna, thanks very much! Yes there is so much you can do yourself that most people don’t realise. Please get in touch through the contact me page https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/contact-me/

      • Joanna
        August 31st, 2018 at 1:29 pm

        Matthew, thanks for the swift response. I sent you more info through your contact me page as you said. Look forward to your response. Thanks again, Joanna

  40. Rohan
    8.18.2018

    Nice article sir good job

    • Matthew Woodward
      August 20th, 2018 at 4:26 pm

      Thanks very much Rohan.

  41. AJBADE
    8.4.2018

    Hi Mathew. I will say this is a very good post and it is what we are suppose to pay much attention to.
    If one could follow all this guidelines as stated by google, one shouldnt have any problem ranking on google.
    Good one very educative article.

    • Matthew Woodward
      August 6th, 2018 at 11:32 am

      Thanks very much :)

  42. Faris Naqib
    7.25.2018

    Your guide are very detailed and specific. Will apply you guidance to improve my SEO. I’m glad found your blog.

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 27th, 2018 at 10:11 am

      Thanks Faris! Glad you found my blog too

  43. simicartan
    7.24.2018

    wow so specific and detailed. i’m new to this whole SEO field and glad to learn very good lesson here!

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 25th, 2018 at 11:06 am

      Well your in the right place to learn!

  44. sahabat hidup
    7.20.2018

    good article .. really help me .. thanks

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 20th, 2018 at 6:23 pm

      You’re welcome :)

  45. chris
    7.19.2018

    This is great advice! Very honest and practical.I really enjoyed this post.Nice post!! these tips may help Great post, Jo! My favorite work advice.Thanks so much for a detailed post! It is very helpful for.Your post is helpful to avoid the mistakes.

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 20th, 2018 at 6:45 pm

      Hey Chris, wow thanks very much. Glad you found it so helpful :)

  46. Paras Singhal
    7.19.2018

    Awesome post and that actually important for SEO in 2018!

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 20th, 2018 at 6:47 pm

      Thanks very much Paras!

  47. Bhaskar
    7.17.2018

    OWO your blog post is really great and covered full details, it will surly help me a to grow my site http://www.digitechind.in

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 17th, 2018 at 3:07 pm

      Best of luck

  48. my assignment help
    7.14.2018

    Great information.. Thanks a lot for sharing nice information.. have a nice day..

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 17th, 2018 at 3:29 pm

      Cheers! You too.

  49. afzal
    7.12.2018

    i found very useful and effective tutorials of seo indeed

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 13th, 2018 at 10:45 am

      Great news, I’m pleased you found it useful.

  50. Teach talk
    7.10.2018

    Sir,
    Your SEO Guides information is very helpful for me.
    I appreciate your work.
    And in future I aspects this type of information

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 10th, 2018 at 11:58 am

      Thanks for your kind words. Hope to see you again soon

  51. Kimberly Suzzane
    7.1.2018

    Thanks metthew these are very effective strategies of SEO i have ever found

    • Matthew Woodward
      July 2nd, 2018 at 10:53 am

      Thanks Kimberly, I hope they prove useful for you

  52. sankha sengupta
    6.25.2018

    VERY NICE POST
    eXCELLENT WORK Matthew

    • Matthew Woodward
      June 25th, 2018 at 12:04 pm

      No problem :)

  53. CHENNAI
    6.24.2018

    Thank you so much for sharing such useful information that is really helpful for me. Thanks again! :)
    https://goo.gl/sxPGzq CHENNAI

    • Matthew Woodward
      June 25th, 2018 at 12:12 pm

      No worries, I hope it proves useful

  54. Lead Generation Services
    6.11.2018

    Thanks for writing such a good article, It really gives a clear idea about the topic. Really great post. – Appointment Setting Services

    • Matthew Woodward
      June 12th, 2018 at 5:25 pm

      No problem, thanks for reading :)

  55. Chirag Nayyar
    6.9.2018

    Very well explained Matthew and will follow all the steps on my blog which I started less than month ago.

    BTW I like your blog. Keep it up.

    Thank you

    • Matthew Woodward
      June 9th, 2018 at 1:37 pm

      Thanks Chirag, yes get the steps implemented you won’t regret it

  56. Mailčan
    6.8.2018

    Thank you for the techniques!
    Will use them for sure

    • Matthew Woodward
      June 16th, 2018 at 12:08 pm

      Great news! No problem

  57. Professor.Nahabu
    6.8.2018

    wow, thank you for this great information …

    • Matthew Woodward
      June 8th, 2018 at 10:09 am

      No problem, hope you found it useful

      • Professor.Nahabu
        June 15th, 2018 at 4:17 pm

        indeed it was very useful, thank you once again

  58. umed singh
    5.31.2018

    A credible article you write, very very interesting and informative … I hope you will keep writing articles as good as this, so I gained extensive

    • Matthew Woodward
      June 1st, 2018 at 8:31 am

      Thanks Umed I certainly intend to

  59. Ivan
    5.30.2018

    You really need to know what makes Google rank websites. That will help you put your website on the front page for your target keywords.

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 31st, 2018 at 10:35 am

      Hello again Ivan, yes knowing want makes them rank and then using the right strategies to be effective

  60. Datadot
    5.30.2018

    Nice Blog…

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 31st, 2018 at 10:38 am

      Thanks very much

  61. Vikas
    5.29.2018

    Always thought Google hated or at least didn’t recommend of SEO. Never heard they have SEO guide. Surely reading this right away!!!

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 29th, 2018 at 9:55 am

      Yep…. lot’s you need to know in this guide

  62. Tammy Rose
    5.29.2018

    This can be a very informative and helpful post, very genuine and practical advice. Is actually very ideal for all tumblr. Specially this information be supporting to the beginner. Thanks a lot! complete

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 29th, 2018 at 10:12 am

      Hey Tammy, thanks very much. Let me know how you get on.

  63. Datadot Labs
    5.26.2018

    Nice Blog…

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 28th, 2018 at 10:21 am

      Cheers…

  64. Dilip Kumar
    5.25.2018

    It‘s actually a nice and useful piece of information. Please keep us up to date like this.

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 25th, 2018 at 10:59 am

      Thanks very much, will do

  65. Virtunis
    5.23.2018

    Hi Matthew,
    It was refreshing to go through all the important stuffs in SEO again.
    It’s not that we don’t know it but reiterating it reminds us their importance.
    Thanks a lot.

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 24th, 2018 at 9:37 am

      Hey, yes it is good to have a reminder now and again no matter how experienced you are

  66. Elizabeta
    5.23.2018

    Hey Matthew,
    Very nice article. It helps a lot to understand me about Google new SEO guide.
    Thank you for this great article!
    Elizabeta

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 23rd, 2018 at 8:54 am

      Hey Elizabeta, no worries. I’m glad it helped clarify things a little further for you :)

  67. PRIYA
    5.19.2018

    Hi,
    great article.

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 21st, 2018 at 8:51 am

      Thanks

  68. Radiance Vision Group
    5.9.2018

    Its very informative blog keep sharing like this post.

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 10th, 2018 at 10:04 am

      Thanks, glad you liked this tutorial

  69. Gunjan
    5.7.2018

    Thanks for sharing very Informative article.

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 7th, 2018 at 10:02 am

      You are welcome, pleased you found it helpful

  70. Ammar Khan
    5.6.2018

    Wonderful & Informative article as always Matthew. Love reading your content, though I have landed at your blog after a long time, I am gonna be landing regularly again as I am starting to blog again.

    Keep writing great stuff.

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 7th, 2018 at 10:03 am

      Hey Ammar, welcome to my blog :) hope to see you soon

  71. suzanne
    5.4.2018

    Great post, thank you.
    For SEO, I find that keywords in the title, meta description, and the first paragraph are important. Also in your alt text on images.
    Cheers, Suzanne

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 7th, 2018 at 10:18 am

      Hey Suzanne, completely agree, thanks for reading :)

  72. mywifiexts
    5.1.2018

    Really nice post Thanks for sharing …

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 1st, 2018 at 9:45 am

      No problem, glad you liked it

  73. Arun Kumar
    4.29.2018

    This information so helpful to me, Because I need this kind of feature in google. Thanks a lot for sharing with us.

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 1st, 2018 at 10:01 am

      Yes we all want those high rankings!

  74. Adivinanzas
    4.27.2018

    Thanks…, for sharing Matthew

    • Matthew Woodward
      May 1st, 2018 at 10:16 am

      No worries :)

  75. Lokesh
    4.25.2018

    Thanks for Sharing New Google SEO Guide with us

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 26th, 2018 at 12:02 pm

      No problem

  76. woocommerce product designer
    4.21.2018

    Good Post, Thanks for sharing over

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 21st, 2018 at 11:18 am

      Hey, no problem and thanks

  77. Anil Agarwal
    4.19.2018

    Hi Matthew,
    This is indeed a very wonderful and informative article. Till tomorrow, search engine optimization remains one of the best (if not the very best) ways of getting a website exposed and gaining some super targeted traffic.

    Even though the industry is always evolving, with so many things that worked today not likely going to work tomorrow and thus, very frustrating, anyone that focuses on the right and legitimate ways of approaching it will still be fine against all odds.

    It’s simply a matter of obeying the rules and sticking to what works and avoid cutting corners. And as far as search engine optimization is concerned again, content will always come first before any other thing. It does not matter how beautiful your website is, it does not matter how blazingly fast it loads, if you publishes only crappy and poor quality content, you will never find yourself on top of the search engine result pages (SERPs). Therefore, constantly producing top notch, high quality content is non negotiable here.

    You might actually game the system for awhile with your mediocre content, but sooner or later, you will be caught, and all your dirty efforts wasted.

    Thanks a lot for always sharing helpful content Matt.

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 21st, 2018 at 11:28 am

      Hi again Anil! Couldn’t have out it better myself!

  78. apotekserba
    4.16.2018

    tanks you articl

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 16th, 2018 at 10:33 am

      No problem

  79. jatin
    4.16.2018

    your infomation on seo is very helpful for me

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 16th, 2018 at 10:34 am

      Good to hear :)

  80. Tom
    4.12.2018

    Very informative!

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 12th, 2018 at 2:25 pm

      Thanks Tom

  81. brainchild
    4.10.2018

    thanx for share this article

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 10th, 2018 at 9:22 am

      You are welcome :)

  82. brainchild
    4.10.2018

    Awesome piece of content sir

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 10th, 2018 at 9:22 am

      Thanks for taking a look

  83. Apec
    4.10.2018

    Nice Blog…

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 10th, 2018 at 9:24 am

      Cheers, hope you found it helpful

  84. SEO
    4.9.2018

    Thanks admin to share with us a grate topic

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 9th, 2018 at 3:56 pm

      No problem, thanks for taking a look

  85. Digital Mad
    4.4.2018

    Great SEO post Matt thanks for sharing!

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 9th, 2018 at 4:19 pm

      No problem, thanks for your comment :)

  86. edie lowther
    4.3.2018

    Hey Matthew this is the best information on internet, really loved it and Google releases new SEO Starter Guide to help marketers learn the basics of SEO. This is the first update to the Starter Guide since 2008! Much appreciated :)

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 3rd, 2018 at 9:32 am

      Thanks Edie

  87. Jodh singh
    4.2.2018

    very important your seo info my brother

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 2nd, 2018 at 2:43 pm

      I agree Jodh

  88. Poonam Kumari
    4.1.2018

    thanx for share this article

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 2nd, 2018 at 8:31 am

      you are very welcome

  89. Amit shakyawar
    3.27.2018

    Thanks for this information it’s very helpful for me.

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 2nd, 2018 at 8:55 am

      Good to know Amit, thanks for reading

  90. Asaduzzaman
    3.25.2018

    Absolutely fantastic article.Thanks again for another thoughtful, honest, and raw blog post that is going to make a huge difference between isolation and community. It is people like you who are able to bring us all together and feel less alone. Best,
    Thank you.

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 2nd, 2018 at 8:15 am

      Glad to do my bit for our community

  91. Brina Ghost
    3.23.2018

    Very useful information, thank you.

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 2nd, 2018 at 9:04 am

      Hi Brina, thanks for your comment!

  92. Mukul
    3.23.2018

    Thank you, sir. for sharing this brilliant locales list. I generally take after your article. This is so unbelievably supportive and I got numerous thoughts I can execute effortlessly.

    • Matthew Woodward
      April 2nd, 2018 at 9:06 am

      Effortless execution sounds heavenly to me

  93. Ashik
    3.16.2018

    Awesome post and that actually important for SEO in 2018!

    • Matthew Woodward
      March 19th, 2018 at 8:38 am

      No worrys Ashik!

  94. Deepak
    3.15.2018

    Yeah, Well said there is no new representation, we already know all mentioned points but they all are effective on proper implementation.

    • Matthew Woodward
      March 19th, 2018 at 8:38 am

      Exactly :)

  95. Sameep Shah
    3.13.2018

    Did they mention anything related to bounce rate, time on page or any of those factors?

    • Matthew Woodward
      March 19th, 2018 at 8:39 am

      Please see the article above :)

  96. David
    3.13.2018

    This guide came at just the right time. Nothing can be better than getting SEO tips straight from Google. I have a question about SSL. What if I add SSL only to the WWW version and not the non-www version… do you think it’d affect the rankings?

    • Matthew Woodward
      March 19th, 2018 at 8:43 am

      You should be redirecting one to the other regardless

  97. Abhishek Sharma
    3.13.2018

    Nice Article Sir, You explain Google SEO Secrets,
    Thanks

    • Matthew Woodward
      March 19th, 2018 at 8:44 am

      Well technically Google explained them :P

  98. Muhammad Ammar
    3.13.2018

    Awesome piece of content, Thanks for the info about the update

    • Matthew Woodward
      March 19th, 2018 at 8:43 am

      No problem :)

  99. Brad
    3.13.2018

    Wow, I hadn;t even heard of this guide before! Thank you for the heads up :D

    • Matthew Woodward
      March 19th, 2018 at 8:43 am

      No worrys Brad!

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