Goodbye Google Webmaster Guidelines, Hello Google Search Essentials
Google is launching a simplified version of the Google Webmaster Guidelines and rebranding it as Google Search Essentials.
Google is officially rebranding the Webmaster Guidelines as “Search Essentials,” which comes with a simplified refresh consisting of only three sections.
The three categories covered in Google Search Essentials include:*Technical requirements*Key best practices*Spam policies
The technical requirements are as follows:*Googlebot isn’t blocked*The page works (it’s not an error page)*The page has indexable content
Technical Requirements
Google’s key best practices include:*Create helpful content.*Make links crawlable.*Tell people about your site.*Enhance how your site appears in search with rich snippets.
Key Best Practices
Google’s spam policies include the following:* Cloaking* Hacked content* Hidden text and links* Keyword stuffing* Link spam* Machine-generated traffic* Malware and malicious behaviors* Scam and fraud