Google SEO Best Practices 2023

Google SEO best practices are the core content, technical, and linking actions that help Google crawl, understand, and rank a page for relevant searches.

Beginner3 min readUpdated 2026-07-26Reviewed by Lucía Marín

Key takeaways

Google prioritizes helpful, people-first content above all.
Place keywords naturally in titles, headings, and alt text.
Ensure pages are crawlable via internal links and sitemaps.
Use canonical tags or consolidation to avoid duplicate content issues.
Monitor indexing and performance in Google Search Console regularly.

These practices reduce indexation and quality issues while improving a page's chances of appearing for the right query intent.

Example: Optimizing a blog post about 'vegan chocolate cake'

Content: Write a detailed recipe with ingredients, steps, and tips. Answer common questions (e.g., substitutions).
Title: "Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe (One Bowl)"
Heading: Use H1 for the title, H2 for sections like "Ingredients" and "Instructions".
Alt text: On the cake photo, write "Vegan chocolate cake with frosting on a white plate".
Internal links: Link to related posts like "Vegan Buttercream Frosting" and "Best Vegan Baking Tips".
Technical: Submit the URL in a sitemap and ensure no noindex tag is present.

Quick-start: 5 steps to apply Google SEO best practices

Create helpful content – Write for users, not search engines. Answer the query thoroughly.
Use keywords naturally – Place target terms in the title, H1, first paragraph, and alt text.
Make pages crawlable – Use descriptive anchor text in internal links and submit a sitemap.
Control indexing – Use noindex to hide pages, not robots.txt. Use canonical tags for duplicates.
Monitor in Search Console – Check for indexing errors, manual actions, and performance data.

How to judge if your page follows best practices

Content quality: Does it satisfy the search intent? Is it original and helpful?
Keyword placement: Are target words in the title, H1, and at least one heading?
Crawlability: Can Google reach the page via internal links? Is it in the sitemap?
Indexing: Is the page set to index (not noindex)? Are there duplicate versions?
Technical health: Are images and videos properly tagged? Is structured data valid?

Common mistakes to avoid

Keyword stuffing – Repeating the same phrase unnaturally in titles and body.
Blocking crawling instead of indexing – Using robots.txt to block a page you want out of search results; use noindex instead.
Duplicate content without canonical – Letting similar pages compete for the same query.
Thin content – Writing short, vague text that doesn't fully answer the query.

Next step

Keyword ResearchLearn how to find the right keywords to target in your content.

FAQ

What is the most important Google SEO best practice?

Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content that matches search intent.

Do I need a sitemap for a small site?

It's recommended for any site, but especially for larger or frequently updated sites.

How do I prevent duplicate content issues?

Use canonical tags or consolidate similar pages into one.

Sources

Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide — Official Google guide for practical SEO fundamentals.
Google Search Central: Search Essentials — Core policy and best-practice framework for content quality, discovery, and indexing.
Google Search Central: Technical SEO basics — Official guidance on crawling, sitemaps, robots.txt, noindex, and crawl management.

Reviewed by Lucía Marín, Founding editor.