Google SEO

Google Refreshes Its SEO Starter Guide

Back in November 2008, Google published a 22-page PDF guide to SEO. The company has just updated that to provide some new features and content. You can download the new 32-page PDF guide over here.

In particular, Google added a glossary of definitions and terms, additional example images to support the content in the guide, mobile devices optimization techniques and clearer wording for better readability. Google has also translated the SEO starter guide in over 40 languages.

In addition, they have finally revealed the true identity of GoogleBot. Here is a large image of GoogleBot:

googlebot

Looking for more starter advice on SEO? Be sure to check out the resources on our What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization? page.

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Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. We remain committed to providing high-quality coverage of marketing topics. Unless otherwise noted, this page’s content was written by either an employee or a paid contractor of Semrush Inc.

About the author

Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.