Does your site follow the Google
webmaster guidelines?
not affiliated with Google Inc
Introduction to the Google Webmaster Guidelines
The Google webmaster guidelines are a set of recommended practices provided by Google to help those seeking to be ranked, indexed and displayed by Google.
These guidelines are the foundation of all SEO efforts, and anyone wanting to rank well in Google should be following them. Some of the guidelines are common sense, some are very technical and all of them are very important to how your website ranks in Google. 1
Let’s look at each one of them one by one…
Complete Guide to SEO Title Tag
Make sure that your "title" elements and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.
A SEO Guide To The Robots.txt File
The content of your robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers how they should visit your site. Don't block Google by mistake.
What are Paid Links?
Paid links and advertisements should not pass pagerank. If it does on your webpages, you will likely be penalized.
![How to Use Robots.txt to Block Unuseful Pages And Why Does It Matter? [Guide]](https://www.feedthebot.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/illustration-20.svg "illustration-20")
Block Unuseful Pages
Blocking pages that do not add much value can really boost your rankings. Every page Google has indexed from your site should be amazing.
Avoid Link Schemes
Who you link to and who links to you affects your ranking in the Google results. Make sure you are not in any bad neighborhoods. Link relationships are described in depth.
Avoid Sneaky Redirects
Hiding redirects in javascript or other manipulative methods is bad. Users should always be sent where they expect to go.
Don't Use Hidden Text or Links
Using hidden text or links on your webpages is easily detected by Google. Your site will be penalized if you do this.
Avoid Doorway Pages
Doorway pages are webpages that are "optimized" for particular keyword phrases and only exist to capture that keyword phrase in search engine results.
Don't Use Scraped Content
Using scraped or stolen content is against the Google webmaster guidelines and it is also against the law. Not a good idea.
Don't Add Badware to Pages
Don't be mean. Adding viruses, trojans, or other badware to your webpages is a sure fire way to lose trust, traffic, and ranking.
Don't Abuse Rich Snippets
Misleading or false information in your rich snippet mark up will result in lower rankings.
Broken Links and Correct HTML
No one enjoys clicking on a link that seems to be exactly what they are looking for only to find that no web page is there.
Dynamic Pages
Dynamic pages must be able to be understood by Google. They face special challenges which are described in this guideline.
Session IDs and Tracking
Don't confuse Googlebot with session id's and other tracking methods.
