Improving Search Engine Ranking by implementing basic seo techniques has always been fairly easy, so I’m not surprised that Google announced an SEO Starter Guide on November 12th. (Thanks to Michaela Lica for bringing that to my attention.)

In this downloadable .pdf file, Google provides the reader with information about the most basic Search Engine Ranking Factors which are easy to implement. Though this Google starter guide will not instantly make you an SEO expert, it can help you to get out of the starting blocks. Which is a good thing as well.

The guide for instance explains how to correctly use tags which are known to be important, such as the  TITLE & “Description”- META tags while also emphasizing some SEO best practices, including correct URL structuring, using a Site map and designing clean navigation.  Aside from these, there also are several tips about web site promotion which include social media, blogging and some links to Google’s own web master tools.

In my opinion, the information that Google has provided in this SEO Starters Guide is quite useful. However SEO doesn’t stop there. It actually starts here :

An effective long term Search Engine Optimization strategy has correlations with a number of other things, including as keyword research, competitor’s tactics and marketing strategy to name a few.  Also, in order to keep Search Engine Rankings High, continuous evaluation and adjustment is needed.

So, unless you’re a SEO newbie and have been ignoring Google optimization completely up untill now, I wouldn’t expect a drastic improvement in Search Engine Placement after reading this guide.  On the other hand, this is only a starters guide, and only time will tell if Google is planning to release a follow-up on it …