# Google's SEO Starter Guide

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

> [!IMPORTANT]
> It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore). Check out the updated [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide).


Webmasters often ask us at conferences or in the
[Webmaster Help Group](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community),
"What are some simple ways that I can improve my website's performance in Google?" There are lots
of possible answers to this question, and a wealth of search engine optimization information on
the web, so much that it can be intimidating for newer webmasters or those unfamiliar with the
topic. We thought it'd be useful to create a compact guide that lists some best practices that
teams within Google and external webmasters alike can follow that could improve their sites'
crawlability and indexing.


Our
[Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide)
covers around a dozen common areas that webmasters might consider optimizing. We felt that these
areas (like improving title and description `meta` tags, URL structure, site navigation, content
creation, anchor text, and more) would apply to webmasters of all experience levels and sites of
all sizes and types. Throughout the guide, we also worked in many illustrations, pitfalls to
avoid, and links to other resources that help expand our explanation of the topics. We plan on
updating the guide at regular intervals with new optimization suggestions and to keep the
technical advice current.


So, the next time we get the question, "I'm new to SEO, how do I improve my site?", we can say,
"Well, here's a
[list of best practices that we use inside Google](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide)
that you might want to check out."

**Update on July 22, 2009:** The SEO Starter Guide is now available in 40 languages!

- [Arabic](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=ar)
- [Bulgarian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=bg)
- [Catalan](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=ca)
- [Chinese (Simplified)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=zh_cn)
- [Chinese (Traditional)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=zh_tw)
- [Croatian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=cr)
- [Czech](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=cz)
- [Danish](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=da)
- [Dutch](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=nl)
- [English](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide)
- [English (GB)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=en)
- [Filipino](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=ph)
- [Finnish](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=fi)
- [French](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=fr)
- [German](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=de)
- [Greek](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=el)
- [Hebrew](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=he)
- [Hindi](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=hi)
- [Hungarian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=hu)
- [Indonesian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=id)
- [Italian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=it)
- [Japanese](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=ja)
- [Korean](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=ko)
- [Latvian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=la)
- [Lithuanian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=li)
- [Norwegian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=no)
- [Polish](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=po)
- [Portuguese (BR)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=pt-br)
- [Portuguese (PT)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=pt)
- [Romanian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=ro)
- [Russian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=ru)
- [Serbian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=sr)
- [Slovak](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=so)
- [Slovenian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=sl)
- [Spanish](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=es)
- [Swedish](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=sw)
- [Thai](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=th)
- [Turkish](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=tu)
- [Ukrainian](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=uk)
- [Vietnamese](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=vi)

Written by Brandon Falls, Search Quality Team