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.

• The use of “easy” and “simple” angles indicates that searchers are beginners looking for straightforward advice.
• This structured data powers rich snippets that boost both visibility and click-through rates.
• We list some other tools in our expert comparison of SEO checker and website analyzer tools.

Optimizing Your SaaS Landing Pages in 2025 — Whiteboard Friday

Failure to utilize internal linking and structured data is another major error. Search engines will struggle to comprehend and rank pages without schema markup and making it more challenging to appear in knowledge graphs and featured snippets. Search engines have come a long way since they used to display only results with a keyword and didn’t actually comprehend what users were looking for. The shift from traditional SEO to Semantic SEO wasn’t instant; it was a response to the growing need for more precise, relevant, and context-aware search results. Search engines no longer just match keywords; they now understand the connections between concepts, analyze context, and identify user intent.

Featured snippet (sometimes called “position zero”) is a selected search result that appears above the standard 10 results in Google search. To make sure your title and description have the right length, you can use our free tool called SERP Simulator. You’ll find more useful information on this topic in a great guide on analyzing third-party performance by Kinsta. It can be very useful for SEO Anomaly content-heavy websites (like news magazines or larger blogs). If you run a WordPress website, there’s an official AMP plugin to help you with implementation.

In addition to publishing relevant, high-quality content, on-page SEO includes optimizing HTML code (e.g., title tags, meta tags), information architecture, website navigation, and URL structure. Adding a bunch of keywords here won’t help you rank – search engine algorithms have ignored this tag for ranking purposes for years due to abuse (in the form of keyword stuffing). You are busier than ever, thanks to leads flowing in from search engines. Partnering with a quality SEO firm gives you the expertise needed to generate more business from organic searches. As a result, SEO has changed from optimizing fixed criteria to working toward optimal user experience. Smart SEOs understand that they have to go beyond backlinks and content.

Consistent effort is required to create SEO-friendly content that your target audience finds valuable. You’ll want to optimize every page of your website, including the home page, about page, and other static pages, as well as blogs, articles, sales pages, and lead capture landing pages. Paid ads are one way to drive traffic to your site but are expensive.

Well, there’s a lot you can do and it can be divided up into three main areas. The reason that so many (big) companies heavily invest in SEO is the high impact that it can have when done right. To give you an idea, Google, the most-used search engine got around 8.3 billion searches per day in 2024. So if you have a website, you want to make sure to show up in Google and other search platforms. First, import your target keywords into Semrush’s Position Tracking tool.

That’s where indirect competitors can help as most owe their high ranking in search results to SEO. Whether your business partners with an agency or manages your strategy in-house, it’s essential to understand what SEO management includes. That way, you can build a foundation for a competitive strategy that actually drives revenue for your company. A list of all the pages on a website that search engines need to know. The overall feeling users are left with after interacting with a brand, its online presence, and its product/services.

Ways to Optimize for Zero-Click Searches

Set SEO goals related to engagement, brand awareness, user experience on your website, user satisfaction, and how all of this can be related to sales or other actions you want your audience to perform. This can be trickier than just looking at your daily rankings but will give you a better idea of the success of your SEO strategy and how you’re perceived. The leading search engines, such as Google, Bing, Brave Search and Yahoo! Pages that are linked from other search engine-indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. Technical SEO ensures search engines can efficiently crawl, index, and rank your site. SEO plays a crucial role in ensuring your website reaches the right audience.

Improving your site’s organic search traffic can reduce the costs of acquiring customers by 87 percent, according to a report by Terakeet, a marketing technology platform 4. Where you rank on SERP matters; the first organic (unpaid) search result on Google receives 27.6 percent of clicks, according to Backlinko 1. A significant decline in clicks occurs for results on the second page, meaning that appearing on the first page garners more visibility. Search engines look for content relevant to the keyword that satisfies searcher intent, is well-structured and easy to navigate, and offers authoritative information within an industry. Learn more about the importance of SEO when it comes to digital marketing and how to improve your site’s SEO strategy. You’ll want to take inventory of your website and blog content as well as where you rank on the search engine results page.