20 years is a long time, especially in internet days, and that is how old the original Google Webmaster Guidelines are. Google has done a major refresh of those guidelines today, and with that, also renamed it to Google Search Essentials.
Why the change. Outside of it being two decades old, Google said, “a lot has changed since 2002” with the internet and Google Search in general. The updated guidelines are streamlined, simplified, and have been updated “to ensure people have clear guidance for how to build sites that serve people well,” a Google spokesperson stated. Google also mentioned that the “goal is to make this guidance useful and easier to understand and to help site owners focus on things that matter for your site.”
What changed. Although Google has made many updates over the years to the old Google Webmaster Guidelines, it was time for a major refresh. Here is an overview of what has changed:
- Name change: From Google Webmaster Guidelines to Google Search Essentials, because Google doesn’t think “webmaster” is a term used much these days and/or it is too narrowly focused. This is similar to when Google changed the name from Webmaster Tools to Search Console in 2015.
- Technical requirements: Google has published a new section to help people understand how to publish content in a format that Google Search can index and access.
- Spam policies: Google has updated its guidance for Google Search policies against spam, “to help site owners avoid creating content that isn’t helpful to people using Search,” said Google. Note that most of the content in these spam policies has already existed on Google Search Central; however, Google made a few additions to provide clearer guidance and concrete examples for issues like deceptive behavior, link spam, online harassment, and scam and fraud.
- Key best practices: Google has also published new guidance with key best practices to consider when creating sites, to create content that serves people and will help a site be more easily found through Google Search.
Other changes include organizing the content in a more logical structure and consolidating similar pages. Google explained that generally, they haven’t changed the content much in those areas.
Google also documented more changes, stating:
- Google Search Essentials: Replaces the Webmaster Guidelines overview page. It includes new sections: technical requirements, spam policies, and key best practices.
- Google Search technical requirements: Covers what Google needs from a web page to show it in Google Search.
- Spam policies for Google web search: Replaces the Quality Guidelines section of the Webmaster Guidelines. It’s been rewritten to cover more relevant examples and use more precise language. Notable updates include:
- Link spam: Consolidates previous pages on Paid links and Link schemes.
- Malware and malicious behaviors: Consolidates information that was previously in the Security section.
- Hacked content: Consolidates information that was previously in the Security section.
- Thin affiliate pages: Consolidates previous pages on Thin content and Affiliate programs.
- New sections include:
- Misleading functionality
- Copyright-removal requests
- Online harassment removals
- Scam and fraud
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content: This document consolidates advice from the helpful content blog post and the core updates post; none of the content is new.
Why we care. The Webmaster Guidelines have been the go-to resource for SEO best practices in Google Search for the past two decades. Changing the name and updating this resource is significant for many SEOs.
SEOs, site owners, publishers, and anyone who manages a website should review the new Google Search Essentials.
