Sites discovered to be using black hat SEO might be penalized or even expelled from a search engine’s index. Like search engines evaluating content based on more than 200 ranking factors, SEO does the same. Search engines like Google publish best practice guidelines, and many professional SEOs share their findings from working on hundreds of sites. Understanding SEO’s definition is only the beginning of understanding how it works. First, you need to learn how search engines work, as their advanced algorithms power the search results and determine where websites appear in the search results. After indexing, search engines rank pages based on relevance, quality, and user experience.

Depending on the agency, they might also use paid SEO tools, like Ahrefs or Semrush. In the 6th chapter of our SEO guide for beginners, we will discuss backlinks – one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization. If your focus keyword is “best content marketing strategy for small businesses”, it would be crazy to use it in all the on-page elements mentioned above just to tick them all off the list. Typically, it takes anywhere from 3 to 6 months to see substantial changes in your search engine rankings. Learning what is SEO involves understanding the basics of search engine optimisation, including keyword research, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. It’s essential to practice these techniques on your own website or blog to gain practical experience.

The anatomy of search results

Search engines like Google and Bing use a number of ranking factors to determine and provide the most relevant content for a particular search term. To many people, the term “search engine” is synonymous with Google, which has about 83% of the global search engine market share. Because Google is the dominant search engine, SEO typically revolves around what works best for Google. It’s useful to have a clear understanding of how Google works and why.

• If you are using images on your website or within your blog content, you will also want to include your keyword or phrase in the image name and alt text.
• In addition to search visibility, SEO drives quality traffic, improves user experience, and helps you stand out in search results.
• As a result, link builders targeted .edu links until many of the lesser-known .edu sites became devalued by Google and any benefit of the link was ignored.

What are Title & Meta Tags

The beauty of SEO is that your marketing efforts allow interested customers to find you online. Most marketing channels require businesses to blast their message out to thousands of customers, with the hope being that a small percentage of them will be qualified prospects. One of the bigger benefits of hiring a top SEO agency is better SEO analytics. Most successful SEO companies will invest in white-label website analytics software, which helps clients monitor rankings, traffic, and conversions from SEO.

Optimizing Your SaaS Landing Pages in 2025 — Whiteboard Friday

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals. Explore SEO Anomaly each reason in more detail to understand the importance of well-crafted SEO marketing.