The latest episode of Google’s Search for Beginners video series goes over the best (and worst) practices for SEO.
As the title of the series suggests, the best practices explained in the video all involve beginner-level tactics. So you may be familiar with much of this already.
It’s also worth noting that Google’s advice in this particular video is intended for business owners – especially those who use their website to sell products.
Here’s a quick recap of the video’s main points.
Google’s SEO Best Practices for Beginners
“SEO is about using the right words and serving relevant information to your potential customers on your websites,” Google says in the video.
That can be accomplished by making sure your website has useful information about things such as:
- Inventory
- Selection
- Pricing
- Location
- Store hours
When it comes to product pages, Google recommends using images along with a description that includes keywords such as brand names, colors, and name of the item itself.
See: A Guide to On-Page SEO for Ecommerce Websites
Other, more general, best practices include:
- Create short, meaningful page titles
- Use page headings that convey the subject of the page
- Have a detailed ‘About Us’ section that includes contact information, a business description, and countries where you operate.
- Use descriptive alt text on images
See: A Complete Guide to SEO: What You Need to Know in 2020
Google’s SEO Best Practices: Things to Avoid
In addition to advising site owners on what they should do with regard to SEO, Google points out some things to avoid.
Without getting too specific, Google tells site owners to stay away from “black hat” techniques that are designed to deceive indexing algorithms.
“Google has many ways to detect techniques that intend to manipulate search rankings. These safeguards help ensure that search results remain relevant and accurate for users. As such, most of these black hat techniques don’t work.”
See: SEO Tactics: Black Hats, White Hats, Gray Hats & ‘Asshats’