Should I write my website for Google or for my visitors?

Write for your visitors. Google is trying to think like them.

That's the answer Google points to, and it makes everything else in SEO easier to understand.

When you write a clear title to let a visitor know they're in the right place, and when you organize your site around the topics your visitors care about, you're signaling the same things to search engines.

So the question to ask, on every page, is simple: would a visitor find this clear, honest, and useful? If yes, you're already doing the work that helps you be found.

What writing for your visitors looks like, in practice

Clear, honest titles

A good title tells a visitor (and Google) what a page or block is actually about, in the words a real person would use to search for it.

SEO #3 How do I write a good Title for my website?
SEO #2 How do I write a good page title?
SEO #1 How do I write good block titles?

Words and structure that match how people search

Choosing the right words throughout your titles and text helps visitors understand your site, and helps Google reference what it's about. Same choice, two benefits.

SEO #4 How do I add keywords to my website?
SEO #5 How do I choose a good domain name?

Helping search engines read what you've written

Once your content is clear, a few small technical steps help search engines display it properly and find every page.

SEO #6 How do I create meta tags for SEO in SimDif?
SEO #7 How do I add Open Graph tags to my SimDif website?
SEO #8 What does the SimDif Optimization Assistant do?
How do I verify ownership of my SimDif site with Google, Bing, ...?
SEO #10 How do I tell Google about my new website?

The full SEO checklist

If you'd like to work through everything step by step, this is the place to start.

SEO #0 The Step-by-Step Guide to How to be Found on Google

A deeper read on writing well for the web

For an in-depth look at how to write and organise a good website, see SimDif's Write for The Web guide.