What Is SEO: Explore Types, Benefits, and How It Works

Also, PPC data can inform your SEO strategy, and the reverse is also true. A rare but malicious practice where webspam techniques are used to harm the search rankings of another website, usually a competitor. Google will take manual action on a website after a human reviewer (i.e., a Google employee) manually reviews a website to confirm whether it has failed to comply with Google’s Webmaster guidelines. Penalized websites can either be demoted or removed entirely from search results.

Competitor’s backlinks

The 2013 Google Hummingbird update featured an algorithm change designed to improve Google’s natural language processing and semantic understanding of web pages. Search engines recommend SEO efforts that benefit both the user search experience and page’s ranking, by featuring content that fulfills user search needs. Focusing on valuable content and avoiding black hat techniques like keyword stuffing ensures that your online presence remains credible and aligned with major search engines’ guidelines.

Below is my 20-step guide covering the essential parts every article should include to work well for both readers and search engines. I won’t go too deep into technical SEO Anomaly details; think of these steps as a checklist to ensure your content is well-prepared. Additionally, clearly defined headings signal to search engines the hierarchy and relationship between topics, which improves indexing and ultimately boosts your visibility in search results.

According to Backlinko, custom meta descriptions can increase click-through rates by 5.8% — without changing your page’s ranking at all. That means better results, more traffic, and stronger visibility with just a few lines of text. This evolution from old-school SEO strategies to newer approaches was driven by key algorithm updates that transformed how search engines process and rank content. With semantic markup, internal linking, and a solid in-depth examination of a topic, you can make it easier for search engines to better understand and rank your site more effectively. Google’s algorithms now analyze entities and how they relate to each other rather than words in isolation. This shift enables search engines to provide improved results, even for ambiguous or vague searches.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

These results are based on multiple factors such as keyword relevance, domain authority, page authority, backlinks. The majority of search engines offer advice on how to raise your page rating, but the precise algorithms are closely guarded and often updated to prevent abuse. More and more users are using their mobile phones to search for information or products while on the go. It is important to be on top of the search results; otherwise, you lose customers to competition, especially those searching for local products or services.

Like every skill, you get better at SEO by practicing on live websites. Apply SEO best practices to make your site easier to find, navigate, and rank higher in search results. These steps will strengthen your SEO foundation, whether you’re starting fresh or improving existing efforts. Search engines use automated bots called “crawlers” or “spiders” to scan websites. These bots follow links from page to page, discovering new and updated content across the web. If your site structure is clear and content is regularly refreshed, crawlers are more likely to find all your pages.

Costs can range from $1,500 to $10,000 per month or more, depending on the agency and the scope of work. While many agencies require a long-term commitment, Cadence does not. Ensuring your site is properly indexed is crucial, and unfortunately, indexing issues can be easy to miss. For example, a global leader in roofing materials experienced a steep drop in traffic after an accidental “noindex” tag was applied to their entire site. After a strategy session with Cadence, the issue was quickly spotted and resolved, leading to a rapid recovery in traffic.

Other off-page tactics like social media management, online reputation management, and email marketing can indirectly benefit your SEO by driving brand awareness and engagement. SEO works by aligning your website with how search engines define good search results. If you don’t use SEO, you’re unlikely to rank prominently for relevant terms. This limits your ability to reach new prospects and persuade them to convert.

• You may find it easier to start with the core content of the page and let that inform the rest of your on-page SEO strategy.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves promoting websites through paid advertising on search engines, increasing visibility through strategies like pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.
• This increased visibility can drive more organic traffic to your site, as users are more likely to click on links that are accompanied by an AI Overview.
• Strategic keyword research is a must-have in any SEO’s toolbox, as it is the process of finding relevant phrases a website should rank on and optimizing pages, particularly content, for those phrases.

In short, a well-executed local SEO strategy not only increases your digital footprint but also drives real-world sales and enhances your brand’s presence within the community. When your listing appears on Maps, you’re not just gaining visibility—you’re positioning your business to capture high-intent customers at the exact moment they’re ready to act. According to Google, 76% of people who search for something nearby visit a related business within 24 hours, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase.

Beyond that, your prospects are also searching for all kinds of things that are only loosely related to your business. These represent even more opportunities to connect with those folks and help answer their questions, solve their problems, and become a trusted resource for them. When learning ‘What is SEO’ there are also some do’s and don’ts as well which you should be aware of. The best practice is to use SEO-friendly URLs, as they help to understand what the webpage is about. The poor URL structure is a big issue in SEO, which may result in your website getting lower ranks. An SEO firm’s job is to drive leads, phone calls, store visits, purchases, and more through search.