Due to increased incidence and mortality rates of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), enhancing early detection efforts, improving early diagnosis rates and personalized therapy guided by precise staging are of great importance for management of HCC at present. In April 2018, the European Society for the Study of the Liver (EASL) released the updated clinical practice guidelines for HCC, focusing on HCC monitoring, diagnosis, staging, and treatment related issues, which comprehensively updated the recommendations for the HCC staging system and the treatment strategies for patients in various stages. Based on the main points of the guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of primary liver cancer in China (2017) and latest evidence-based research resources, the authors interpret the essential points of the updates, so as to provide help for the clinical decision makers to appropriately apply the guidelines for HCC management.