What is SEO: A Complete Guide to Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization uses how search works to optimize a site for organic search results. If you’re curious to learn more about Google and its impact on SEO, check out our timeline of Google algorithm updates. Besides learning the different concepts and theories, the only way to find out what works is to apply the various SEO techniques on a website and monitor your rankings.

A 5-Step SEO Plan to Boost Your Search Rankings As A Beginner in 2025

Off-page SEO refers to optimization techniques that are done outside of your own website. The goal of off-page SEO is to get both search engines and searchers to view your website as a trustworthy source, by boosting its authority and credibility. This can be done by other reputable places on the Internet, like pages, sites, and people.

The goal of this type of search engine optimization is to produce the best content possible on a site that’s easy to read and navigate. On the other hand, white hat SEO is an effective approach to optimizing your website for search engines and building a sustainable business online. If you’re not happy with your search engine rankings, it may be time to call in a professional Atlanta SEO company. You want to be careful here as spamming sites with your link building is a quick and easy way to get your site banned from the search engines. One of the best ways to improve trust is by building quality backlinks from sites that have authority.

Link Building

The primary goal of SEO is to drive organic (non-paid) traffic to a website BHS Links by improving its relevance and authority in the eyes of search engines. SEO has evolved significantly since its inception in the early-1990s. It began with webmasters manually submitting URLs to search engines and including keyword-rich meta tags. Early search engines, like AltaVista and Infoseek, used these tags to index content. The late 1990s saw the rise of Google, which revolutionized SEO with its PageRank algorithm, focusing on the quality and quantity of backlinks.

Compress images and use efficient file formats, such as .png or .webp, to improve the user experience and speed up load times. Once you know which keywords to target, your next step is checking out SEO competitors already ranking highly for those terms. Here, learn about the different types of SEO marketing and how to improve organic search results for your online store or website.

• Let’s briefly talk about each one of them so you can better understand those steps.
• When someone talks about Marketer Milk on LinkedIn, I see a slight lift in my SEO traffic.
• By analyzing the behavior of millions of searchers, Google knows what type of content they expect to see for a particular query.

SEO can support social media, paid advertising, email marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing, and more. Crawling and indexing are the foundational steps in the search engine process. Crawling involves sending search bots to discover and scan web pages, capturing their content and structure. Once the pages are crawled, the data is stored in massive databases through a process called indexing. During indexing, the crawled data is analyzed and organized into categories, making it possible for search engines to retrieve and rank relevant web pages when a user submits a search query.

White hat SEO, on the other hand, refers to all the regular SEO techniques that stick to the guidelines and rules. It is a long-term strategy in which good rankings are a side-product of good optimization, quality content, and a user-oriented approach. Creating SEO content is just one part of the overall process of growing your online visibility. The next step is to analyze your data and use it to improve your content and overall marketing strategy. What’s cool about this technique is that these are real searches people have made on Google. So you know these are keywords people are typing into the search engine you’re optimizing your content for.

Without SEO content, your site won’t appear in search results, and people won’t be able to find your site online. Technical SEO includes auditing and updating backend site elements, like your code and page speed, so your site performs well in search and for users. Any search engine will first show the pages that it thinks are the most relevant. They do this by performing a series of functions, as discussed below.

Technical SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and maintenance to ensure that your website remains optimized and aligns with evolving search engine algorithms. In this section, you’ll improve your website’s content, domain authority, and technical elements to make your site more discoverable and beneficial for your target audience. Internal links are a GREAT way to optimize your content for users and search engines. A keyword with a high search volume attracts more organic search traffic but is also more competitive. Targeting high-volume keywords means competing with high-quality sites that have higher authority.