Google has refreshed guidelines for site owners

Back in 2002, Google launched a page with a set of guidelines for site owners that provided an overview of best practices when it came to building a site, called the “Webmaster Guidelines”. These guidelines have changed over time, with lots of information to help site owners build the site that’s right for their users who visit through Google Search.

However, a lot has changed since 2002, and on October 13, 2022, Google launched a refreshed, simplified version of the Webmaster Guidelines, and they are changing the name as well.

Google has now introduced the ‘Google Search Essentials’. These new guidelines make up the core parts of what makes your web-based content eligible to appear and perform well on Google Search.

According to Google Search Central, these include:

Technical requirements

What Google needs from a web page to show it in Google Search. Meaning you must publish content in a format that Google can index and allow Google to access the content.

Spam policies

The behaviours and tactics that can lead to lower ranking or being completely omitted from Google Search results. Sites that focus on providing the best content and experience for people and uphold the spirit of Google’s principles are more likely to do well in Google Search results.

Key best practices

The set of practices that we believe people really should consider when creating sites. These include:

  • Creating helpful, people-first content.
  • Using keywords that people would use to look for your content and place those words in prominent locations on the page.
  • Making your links crawlable so that Google can find other pages on your site via the links on your page.
  • Telling people about your site. Be active in communities where you can tell like-minded people about the services and products that you mention on your site.
  • If you have other content, such as images, videos, structured data, and JavaScript, make sure you’re following those specific best practices so that Google can understand those parts of your page too.
  • Enhancing how your site appears on Google Search by enabling features that make sense for your site.
  • If you have content that shouldn’t be found in search results or you want to opt-out entirely, use the appropriate method for controlling how your content appears in Google Search.

At WebEagles aim to stay up to date with all Google updates and implement these best practices within our work. For more information, contact us on 1300 123 808.

 

Author: Rajeh El-Ali