SEO for Beginners
New to SEO? Start here. This series explains how Google finds, understands and ranks pages, in plain language, then walks you through the first checks to run on your own site. One small step per lesson, no jargon for its own sake. Work through the lessons in order, or jump to the one your site needs.
How Search Engines Actually Work: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking Explained
Before Google can show your page, it has to find it, understand it, and decide it deserves a spot. This beginner guide explains crawling, rendering, indexing, and ranking step by step, then shows you how to spot where your pages might be getting stuck.
Is my page on Google? How to check if Google indexed your page
Is your page on Google? Check in 2 minutes with a site: search and Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool, and fix pages that aren't indexed.
Finding the words people actually type
Learn keyword research for beginners: find the words your customers really type with free tools like Google autocomplete, Trends and Search Console.
Google Ready Page Check
The whole series in one place, with checklists you can run on any page of your site.
Three lessons done? Take the checklists with you.
The other series.
On-Page SEO
Title tags, meta descriptions, headings and internal links: the parts of a page you control completely.
Explore seriesKeywords & Content
Search intent, keyword research and content that answers the search: how to choose what a page is about before you write it.
Explore seriesTechnical SEO
Crawling, indexing, sitemaps and site structure: how search engines find your pages, read them and decide what to keep.
Explore seriesLocal SEO
Google Business Profile, reviews and local rankings: how a business with an address gets found by people nearby.
Explore series