Google Updates Its General Guidelines

Khrysti Nazzaro - February 17, 2016

This year is already seeing a wide range of SEO news from Google. In mid-January the engine announced that it had updated its Webmaster website. The Webmaster website contains a variety of resources and support for brands that want to create better, more search-friendly websites. Soon after the revamp was announced, Google also launched an updated version of one of the most important components of the site, their published Guidelines.

Given that much of what Google considers from an Organic ranking perspective is proprietary and confidential, the contents of their published Guidelines are particularly important for marketers who want to learn what makes the engine (and its rankings) tick and develop a strategy that will best align with those concepts. While the guidelines generally don’t cover all aspects of SEO, they are an excellent reference and primer for brands. Any changes or updates should be reviewed and assessed for relevance based on your current SEO efforts.

It appears that the changes are centered on the General Guidelines section, which now has a new format / design presentation, as well as plenty of new details and edits to previous content. While we encourage a methodical, considerate approach to any changes you choose to make to your SEO strategy, it is essential that you familiarize yourself with these updates to the published Guidelines as part of your overall SEO plan.