Google has launched a new beginner’s guide to search engine optimization (SEO) for webmasters looking to promote their sites online.

The SEO Starter Guide offers guidance on about a dozen different areas that are commonly explored by online marketing professionals when optimizing a site for search engines.

These include utilizing title and meta tags for SEO, website navigation, URL structure, anchor text and content creation, Brandon Falls of the search quality team wrote on the Google Webmaster Central blog.

He said that the guide, which will be regularly updated, also includes illustrations and tips on common errors to avoid, as well as links to other sources of information from Google.

"We thought it’d be useful to create a compact guide that lists some best practices that teams within Google and external webmasters alike can follow that could improve their sites’ crawlability and indexing," Mr Falls explained.

Google Webmaster Central offers a range of services for website owners, including site search and other gadgets that can be added to sites and a discussion group.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.