When building a website, you’ve likely put considerable thought into the needs of your users, making it as easy as possible for them to find and navigate your content. However, search engines are also users of your site—they help other users discover your content. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) aims to assist search engines in understanding your content, helping users find your website through search engines, and deciding whether they should visit your site.Search essentials outline the key elements your website needs to satisfy in order to appear in Google Search. While we cannot guarantee that any specific site will be added to Google’s index, websites that follow the search essentials guidelines are more likely to appear in Google’s search results. SEO involves taking steps to improve how your site is displayed in Google Search. This guide introduces you to some of the most common and effective improvements you can make to your website.
There’s no secret that will automatically rank your website first on Google (sorry!). In fact, some of these recommendations might not be applicable to your business, but following best practices should help search engines (not just Google) better understand, crawl, and index your content.
How Google Search Works
Google is a fully automated search engine that uses programs called crawlers to continually browse the web, seeking out pages to add to Google’s index. Typically, all you need to do is publish your site on the web, and there’s nothing more you need to do. In fact, the vast majority of sites listed in Google search results are found and added by Google automatically as it crawls the web pages. If you want to learn more, you can refer to our documentation on how Google discovers, crawls, and presents web pages.
How long does it take to see results in search?
All your changes take some time to be reflected by Google. Some changes might take effect within hours, while others might take months. Generally, you might need to wait several weeks to assess whether your efforts have positively impacted Google search results. Note that not every change you make to your site will have a noticeable impact on search results. If you’re not satisfied with the results and your business strategy allows it, try implementing changes iteratively to see if they make a difference.
Helping Google find your content
Before you perform any of the actions mentioned in this section, first check if Google has already found your content (perhaps you don’t need to do anything!). Try searching for your website on Google. If you see results pointing to your site, it indicates that your site is indexed. For example, a search for site:wikipedia.org will return these results. If you don’t see your site, review the technical requirements to ensure there are no technical issues preventing your site from appearing on Google Search, then return here.
Google primarily finds pages through links from other web pages it has already crawled. In many cases, these are other sites that link to your pages. Other sites linking to yours usually happens over time naturally, and you can also promote your site to encourage users to discover your content.
If you’re willing to take on some technical challenges, you can also submit a sitemap containing all the URLs on your site that you want to focus on. Some content management systems (CMS) might even do this automatically for you. However, this is not mandatory, and you should first ensure that users are aware of your site.
Check if the same webpage is presented to both Google and users.
When Google crawls a webpage, it ideally should look the same as it does to regular users. To achieve this, Google needs access to the same resources as a user’s browser. If your website hides important components that make up the site, such as CSS and JavaScript, Google may not be able to comprehend your webpage. This means it might not appear in search results or achieve a high ranking for the search terms you target.
If your webpage displays different information based on a user’s actual location, ensure that you are satisfied with the information shown to Google based on the crawler’s location (usually the United States).
To check how Google views your webpage, use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.
Don’t want a webpage to appear in Google search results?
You might want to opt out of having your entire site or parts of it appear in search results. For example, you might not want your unfortunate new haircut post to show up in search results. Google supports several ways to let you choose not to have your URL crawled and indexed. If you need to prevent certain files, directories, or even entire websites from appearing in Google search results, refer to our guide on how to block content from appearing in search results.
Organize your site.
When setting up or redesigning your site, it’s best to organize it logically, as this helps search engines and users understand the relationship between your webpages and the rest of the site. However, do not abandon your existing structure entirely and start reorganizing your site immediately. While these recommendations might be helpful in the long run (especially for larger sites), search engines are likely to understand existing pages regardless of the site structure.
Use descriptive URLs.
Certain parts of a URL can appear as breadcrumb navigation in search results, allowing users to judge whether a result is useful to them based on the URL
When organizing a website with thousands of URLs, how you structure your content can significantly impact Google’s ability to crawl and index your site effectively. Grouping similar topics into directories (or folders) helps Google understand how often URLs within those directories change.For example, consider the following URLs:
Content in the ‘policies’ directory is likely to change infrequently, while content in the ‘promotions’ directory may change very frequently. Google can use this information to crawl different directories at different frequencies. For more details on creating a search-friendly site structure, refer to our guide for e-commerce websites. E-commerce sites tend to be larger, so a clear URL structure becomes even more important.
Reducing Duplicate Content Some websites display the same content on different URLs, which is known as duplicate content. Search engines select one URL (the canonical URL) to display to users for each piece of content.
Having duplicate content on your site doesn’t violate our spam policies, but it could lead to a poor user experience and may cause search engines to waste crawl resources on URLs you don’t care about. If you’re exploring new strategies, consider specifying a canonical version for pages. However, if you don’t set canonical URLs yourself, Google will attempt to do it automatically for you.
When consolidating content, ensure that each piece of content on your site is accessible through a single URL. If two pages contain the same promotional information, it could confuse users (e.g., users may wonder which page is correct and whether there are differences between the two).
If you have multiple pages with the same information, try redirecting non-preferred URLs to the one that best represents the information. If redirection isn’t possible, use the <link rel="canonical"> element instead. However, don’t worry too much about this—search engines usually figure it out on their own in most cases.
Making a Website Engaging and Useful
Creating content that users find engaging and practical can significantly impact how a website appears in search results, often more so than any other recommendations. Though “engaging and practical content” may mean different things to different people, such content generally shares some common traits, such as:
Readable and Well-Structured Text:
Write content in a natural, flowing manner. Ensure that it’s well-composed, easy to understand, and free of spelling and grammatical errors.
Break long pieces of content into paragraphs and sections, and provide headings to help users navigate the page.
Unique Content:
When writing new content, create your own work based on your understanding of the topic instead of copying parts or the entirety of someone else’s content. Avoid merely rephrasing what others have already published.
Up-to-Date Information:
Review previously published content and update it as necessary. If it’s no longer relevant, consider removing it.
Practical, Reliable, and User-Centric Content:
Make sure the content you write is helpful and reliable for readers. For example, citing expert information or experience sources can help convey the article’s professionalism to users.
Anticipating Search Terms Used by Readers
Consider the search terms users might employ when looking for your content. Users deeply familiar with a topic may use different keywords in search queries compared to those who are less familiar. For instance, some users might search for “deli meats,” while others might search for “charcuterie.” Anticipating these differences in search behavior and considering your audience when writing content can positively influence your website’s performance in search results.
However, if you’re unable to predict every way users might search for your content, there’s no need to worry. Google’s complex language matching system can understand the relationship between your webpage and many queries, even if you don’t explicitly use the exact terms.
Avoiding Distracting Ads
While ads are a part of the internet and aim to grab users’ attention, they should not be overly distracting or prevent users from reading your content. For instance, avoid ads or interstitials that make it difficult for users to use the site, such as those appearing before or after the content they want to see.
Linking to Relevant Resources
Links effectively connect users and search engines to other parts of your website or relevant pages on different sites. In fact, Google discovers most new web pages daily through links. To ensure Google can discover your pages and potentially display them in search results, consider utilizing this important resource with links. Additionally, links can guide users (and Google) to other resources that validate the content you’re writing, thereby adding value.
Writing High-Quality Anchor Text
Anchor text (or link text) is the visible part of a hyperlink that informs users and Google about the page you’re linking to. With appropriate anchor text, both users and search engines can easily understand the content of the linked page before visiting it.
Provide links when necessary
Links can offer users and search engines more context about a particular topic, which may help demonstrate your understanding of the subject. However, if you link to web pages you do not control (such as content on other sites), ensure that you trust the resources you are linking to. If you cannot vouch for the content but still want to link to these sites, consider adding a “nofollow” or similar annotation to the link. This prevents search engines from associating your site with the site you are linking to, helping to avoid any potential negative impact on your ranking in Google Search.
If your website allows user-generated content (such as forum posts or comments), make sure your CMS automatically adds a “nofollow” or similar annotation to every link published by users. Since you did not create this content, you likely do not want your site to be blindly associated with the sites users link to. This also helps deter spammers from abusing your site.
Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization