Guides
Five guides to search, in reading order
Each guide explains one part of search engine optimisation in plain language, based on the search engines' own documentation. They are written to be read in order, but each one stands alone.
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Guide 01
How search engines find, store and show pages
Crawling, indexing and serving explained in plain language, with what each stage means for the person who looks after a website.
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Guide 02
Where organic search sits in the marketing mix
How unpaid search differs from paid search, social, email and referrals, and how to decide how much attention it deserves.
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Guide 03
Search intent: writing for the question behind the query
A practical way to read what a searcher is trying to do, and to plan pages that answer that need instead of chasing keywords.
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Guide 04
Measuring search performance without fooling yourself
What Search Console clicks, impressions and position really measure, how to tag other campaigns, and how to compare periods fairly.
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Guide 05
Shortcuts that backfire: a plain reading of spam policies
The tactics search engines treat as spam, why ranking promises are a warning sign, and how to judge an SEO offer before you pay for it.