What is SEO: A Complete Guide to Search Engine Optimization

Because in natural human language, the queries are usually longer and more on questions rather than plain keywords. In today’s world, wherein many people prefer to use voice search, this can definitely affect a website’s SEO. In addition to that, based on research from Gartner, 30% of searches in 2020 will be made without a screen. Ensuring that your web pages have a fast page speed and can function across mobile devices is crucial to reaching audiences wherever they are.

Why is SEO marketing important?

Many people quickly discard direct mail without a second thought, and magazine or newspaper ads are frequently ignored—or missed entirely by those who prefer digital media over print. For example, a well-optimized blog post can be shared across social media platforms to drive immediate engagement, while SEO efforts promote long-term visibility in search results. This combination allows search engines to sift through massive amounts of information and bring the most relevant results to your fingertips in seconds. We all rely on search engines to find everything from quick answers to complex research. Whether you’re searching for a recipe, troubleshooting a problem, or just satisfying curiosity, search engines are our go-to resource.

You can learn what they are doing well and use those ideas on your own website. Search engine optimization is an ongoing process that touches on many areas of your website. You’ll find a detailed overview in our ultimate guide to WordPress SEO for Beginners. Last but not least remember to take advantage of SEO tools, for example, plugin WordPress. Other tricks to improve readability are using bulleted lists, and creating short paragraphs to avoid a wall of SEO Anomaly text. Of course, you’ll have to take care of the content structure as well.

Check that your images are sized appropriately for your website and the space you’ve allotted for it. Poor quality images can make your website look less professional, but large files can slow down page speeds. If you’re running a website, you’re probably aware of the importance of SEO. But the ‘how’ of implementing SEO practices into your website can feel confusing to many. Discover and grow your audience with the checklists in our free guide.

These statistics give us a good idea of where SEO is headed in the coming months and years. The specter looming over most SEO-related conversations in 2025 is AI. When ChatGPT and other generative AI tools burst on the scene in late 2023, many predicted that the death of SEO was imminent.

What is SEO? (Search Engine Optimization)

If you’re still feeling stuck, consider bringing on an SEO specialist for further improvement. It’s a very effective digital marketing technique, but it takes time to work. When a user types a search query, search engine algorithms look into their index and find the best pages to satisfy the user’s intent. Pages most likely to satisfy the user appear in the first positions of the organic results. PPC or Pay-Per-Click Advertising is the process of getting paid traffic from search engines. In the case of Google, if you want to appear on the SERPs for specific searches, you can use Google Ads to position your brand on top of the results.

SEO and SEM target different search results

• Google profits from people trusting and valuing its search service.
• AI-driven updates like RankBrain, BERT, and MUM now prioritize topic depth.
• With search engines like Google, the process consists of crawling, indexing, and ranking.
• If you partner with an agency, your business may sign with a specialized agency, like a local SEO company or full-service digital marketing agency.
• These repairs allowed users and search engines to access content seamlessly and set a solid foundation for future SEO efforts.

Make sure that all your important pages are linked to from other pages of your website. You can view the internal links report in Google Search Console and make the necessary adjustments. Besides images, a website may include other multimedia elements such as videos, podcasts, and audio. If you don’t do it, Google will only index one of the versions or get confused, which can negatively affect your rankings. A canonical URL tells search engine crawlers which version of a page they should index. If you have a piece of software, physical product, consulting service or ANYTHING of value that you sell, you can easily turn that into dozens of high-quality backlinks.

An SEO specialist might then refine your SEO strategies—such as adding more internal links or adjusting target keyword choices—to create a more effective SEO strategy in the long run. Many SEO techniques, such as core web vitals improvements and high-quality relevant content, can help you build a strong presence and gain better search engine rankings. However, search engines are not paid for organic search traffic, their algorithms change, and there are no guarantees of continued referrals.

Some of the key technical SEO tasks include optimizing site speed, structure, crawling, indexing, and schema markup. It also involves mobile optimization, submitting sitemaps, and resolving issues such as server errors, broken links, duplicate content, etc. Technical SEO is about improving the technical aspects of your website so that search engines can easily find, crawl, understand, and index your pages. Off-page SEO primarily revolves around link building — the process of getting other websites to link back to your website. Additionally, achieving a high ranking in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) automatically enhances the credibility and authority of your brand.

This makes a site more authoritative and displays indicators of Google E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). For businesses that want to bring in expert help selectively, hiring freelancers can be a reasonable solution. Freelancers typically specialize in specific areas of SEO, such as content creation, link building, or technical SEO.