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The Google webmaster guidelines are a list of suggested practices Google has provided as guidance to webmasters. Websites that do not follow some of the guidelines may be removed from the Google index. A website experiencing problems being indexed or ranked well can find direction in the guidelines. Often websites are not following all of the guidelines and may experience a lower ranking in Google's search engine results or complete removal from the Google index. There are currently thirty-one guidelines which are split into four categories.

Contents 1 Quality guidelines 2 Technical guidelines 3 Design and content guidelines 4 When your site is ready 5 References 6 External links

There are five "basic principles" and eight "specific guidelines" in this category. These guidelines are directed toward deceptive behavior and manipulation attempts that may lessen the quality of the Google search engine results. Violations of the quality guidelines are the most common reason of a website being removed from Google's index.

There are five guidelines in this category. These guidelines cover specific issues that may inhibit a web page from being seen by Googlebot which is Google's search engine crawler.

There are nine guidelines in this category. These guidelines give practical information to webmasters concerning the way their site is built and represent the most common unintentional mistakes that webmasters make.

There are five guidelines in this category. These guidelines provide specific direction for a webmaster who has created a new site and are also relevant for older sites which are not yet in the Google index.

• The Google webmasters guidelinesThe guidelines as published by Google.com
• How can I create a Google-friendly site? Google advice from their help documentation.

• Google guidelines explained for new webmasters Terms and concepts are discussed and examples of common mistakes provided.