Google recently announced that they are re-branding from “Google Webmasters Central” to “Google Search Central”.  The overall goal appears to be the same, which is to help users improve their website’s visibility (organic results) on Google Search and to show up on Google search as well as how to increase search traffic. 

Google offers several paths to choose from with the site, from a simpler “Quick Start” for users that have limited time and just want the bottom line, basics of SEO to beginner SEO, advanced SEO, and more. You will also find more detailed information on how Google Search Works, as well as a helpful SEO starter guide.  

You will also find a helpful guide on “How search works” which explains the basics of crawling, indexing, and search results. Additionally, there is a helpful section in Google Search Central on how to optimize your site for search engines, including the basics of being descriptive, be topical, keeping your site up to date, and more.

Google also offers an informative guide to Search Console, which Google says “is a free tool from Google that can help anyone with a website to understand how they are performing on Google Search, and what they can do to improve their appearance on a search to bring more relevant traffic to their websites. The tool can help users monitor and optimize search engine performance for your website. 

These tools, guides, and tutorials can help you learn the basics of SEO and the quick start guide only takes @ 20 minutes to read. So if you have the time and the interest in optimizing your website for organic search, this is a good place to start. There are a number of excellent SEO training courses across the web, including a good course through Udemy “The Ultimate SEO Training 2020 + SEO for WordPress Websites.” 

There’s also a Google Search Console help center where you can find answers to your questions and support. There is also a community forum where you can ask others your questions and get additional support. You will find additional information regarding Google ranking factors, crawling and ranking factors, security and malware issues, structured data, and more. 

The good news here is that website owners and business owners can learn more about optimizing their website for organic search, increasing organic rankings, and traffic to your site. Whether you decide to optimize your website yourself or hire an SEO agency, this site will help you better understand search engine optimization and make sure you don’t get taken advantage of. 

There are a lot of SEO agencies out there, some good, and some not so good. You’ll want to make sure that you don’t fall for an SEO scheme that does not follow basic SEO rules and guidelines, avoiding low-quality content, low-quality links, links networks, and scams. If you understand some of the foundational basics of SEO, that will help protect you from falling for a scam that can hurt your website’s organic rankings and overall health. Even more, the reason to invest some time with Google Search Central. Knowledge is power, especially with regards to SEO, and Google Search Central can help users and business owners increase their knowledge and take more control over your SEO efforts. 

You can also follow the latest Google Search Central blog to keep up to date on all the latest news and developments.
By increasing your web sites organic rankings, you can potentially decrease or eliminate your Google Ads advertising budget and reduce your needs for pay-per-click management.