It's great when the makers of the game tell you how to win. Google has just released a new Beginner's Guide for understanding SEO.

One of our clients came to us recently with a website which had some nice design elements to it but went a bit overboard with SEO optimization. Maybe to the search engines, certain titles and links made sense,, but not to a human. Here is what Google says in the introductry page of their guide:

Even though this guide's title contains the words "search engine", we'd like to say that you should base your optimization decisions first and foremost on what's best for the visitors of your site. They're the main consumers of your content and are using search engines to find your work. Focusing too hard on specific tweaks to gain ranking in the organic results of search engines may not deliver the desired results. Search engine optimization is about putting your site's best foot forward when it comes to visibility in search engines, but your ultimate consumers are your users, not search engines.