101 · 15 canons

SEO

The durable search foundations, demand research and technical diagnostics that still matter when result pages, crawlers and interfaces keep changing.

TL;DR Make useful pages crawlable, indexable and internally connected before chasing tactics. Use first-party search guidance for rules, independent tools for diagnosis and real query behavior for priorities.

Curated by Ali Abouelatta

Cofounder of Lazyweb (a16z Speedrun). Previously grew subscriptions and built native ads at Duolingo. Writes First1000 (90,000+ subscribers).

Voices in this 101

Google Search Central

Reading path 1

Learn the search contract

Start with what Google actually requires and how search systems discover, render, index and serve a page.

01
Google Search Essentials ↗
Google Search Central
Google's official source for search crawling, indexing and AI-feature guidance.
TL;DR
Technical requirements, spam policies and people-first practices define the eligibility floor; none guarantees ranking.
What you'll read
Google's shortest authoritative statement of what a page must do, must not do and should do to participate in search.
02
SEO Starter Guide ↗
Google Search Central
Google's official source for search crawling, indexing and AI-feature guidance.
TL;DR
Good SEO makes content understandable to search engines and useful to people through clear structure, descriptive language and discoverable links.
What you'll read
A current end-to-end foundation covering site organization, titles, snippets, links, images, promotion and common misconceptions.
03
How Google Search works ↗
Google Search Central
Google's official source for search crawling, indexing and AI-feature guidance.
TL;DR
Crawling, indexing and serving are separate stages; a page can succeed at one and fail at the next.
What you'll read
The basic pipeline and the first diagnostic split to make when a page is absent, stale or shown for the wrong query.
04
Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content ↗
Google Search Central
Google's official source for search crawling, indexing and AI-feature guidance.
TL;DR
Content should serve an existing audience and demonstrate first-hand purpose, not exist mainly to capture search demand at scale.
What you'll read
Self-assessment questions for originality, sourcing, expertise, page experience and the warning signs of search-engine-first publishing.
05
Spam policies for Google web search ↗
Google Search Central
Google's official source for search crawling, indexing and AI-feature guidance.
TL;DR
Scaled content, cloaking, doorway pages, expired-domain abuse and reputation abuse are policy boundaries, not aggressive versions of ordinary optimization.
What you'll read
Definitions and examples of current spam categories plus the actions Google may take when a site crosses them.

Reading path 2

Find demand worth serving

Traffic volume is not a strategy. These readings connect queries, customer problems, channels and the product's ability to deserve the visit.

06
Keyword research: the beginner's guide ↗
Ahrefs
Search software company publishing large studies and practical SEO education.
TL;DR
Keyword research moves from seed topics to business potential, intent, traffic potential and ranking feasibility—not raw volume alone.
What you'll read
A practical workflow for generating ideas, grouping them, inspecting result pages and choosing priorities with a real product fit.
07
How search engines work ↗
Ahrefs
Search software company publishing large studies and practical SEO education.
TL;DR
Search engines discover, process and rank pages using many systems; links and relevance matter because they help discovery and confidence, not as isolated scores.
What you'll read
A visual explanation of crawling, indexing, ranking and the role of links, language and freshness.
08
LearningSEO.io roadmap ↗
Aleyda Solis
International SEO consultant and creator of LearningSEO.io.
TL;DR
SEO is a set of connected disciplines, and the right learning order depends on whether the current constraint is research, content, technical access, links or measurement.
What you'll read
A curated learning path through fundamentals, execution, tools, technical SEO, international SEO and specializations.
09
Product-channel fit for growth ↗
Brian Balfour
Founder of Reforge and former VP of Growth at HubSpot.
TL;DR
Channels have native rules that shape the products able to grow through them; SEO cannot be bolted onto a product that produces nothing searchers want.
What you'll read
A growth operator's model for how product, market, model and channel constrain one another before tactics begin.
10
SEO strategy ↗
Backlinko
SEO publication known for deeply worked strategy and execution guides.
TL;DR
A usable SEO strategy combines search intent, differentiated content, on-page clarity, promotion and ongoing improvement instead of publishing disconnected keywords.
What you'll read
A concrete planning sequence and examples of turning a topic into a page that can earn attention and links.

Reading path 3

Diagnose the site you actually have

Technical SEO is evidence work. Use these sources to inspect rendering, internal paths, coverage and performance without inventing exotic fixes.

11
Technical SEO: the beginner's guide ↗
Ahrefs
Search software company publishing large studies and practical SEO education.
TL;DR
Technical SEO removes barriers to crawling, indexing and usable delivery; it does not compensate for a page with no demand or value.
What you'll read
A prioritized audit of crawl controls, status codes, canonicals, sitemaps, rendering, duplication and performance.
12
JavaScript SEO basics ↗
Google Search Central
Google's official source for search crawling, indexing and AI-feature guidance.
TL;DR
Google can render JavaScript, but server-visible HTML, stable links and sensible status behavior remain the safest foundation.
What you'll read
Rendering stages, titles and descriptions, lazy loading, history APIs, soft 404s, canonical tags and testing guidance.
13
The definitive guide to JavaScript SEO ↗
iPullRank
Search agency publishing technical research on rendering, retrieval and AI search.
TL;DR
Client rendering creates observable failure modes across crawling, rendering, links and metadata; diagnose the exact stage before choosing SSR as a cure-all.
What you'll read
A technical field guide to rendering architectures, queues, hydration, dynamic links, testing and the tradeoffs of common frameworks.
14
Internal links for SEO ↗
Ahrefs
Search software company publishing large studies and practical SEO education.
TL;DR
Internal links reveal relationships, distribute attention and create crawl paths; orphan pages and generic anchors hide the site's own priorities.
What you'll read
How to find internal-link opportunities, repair orphan pages and use descriptive paths without turning every sentence into a link farm.
15
Search Quality Rater Guidelines ↗
Google Search Central
Google's official source for search crawling, indexing and AI-feature guidance.
TL;DR
Quality raters do not directly rank pages, but their guidelines show the human quality concepts Google's evaluators are trained to assess.
What you'll read
Needs Met, page quality, reputation, experience, expertise, trust and the examples that make vague quality language concrete.