SEO basics
What is SEO? Search engine optimization explained simply
What is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization. According to Google, it means helping search engines understand your content, and helping people find your website through search and decide whether to visit it. It is about the normal, unpaid search results, often called "organic search". According to Google, appearing there costs nothing. You also cannot buy a better position there, and no one can guarantee you first place.
Here you will learn how Google finds pages, where SEO comes in, how it differs from ads, how long it takes and what an SEO service provider can promise. Everything about Google is based on Google's own pages. Where we recommend something that Google does not say in this form, we tell you.
What is SEO? Search engine optimization in plain words
Google describes SEO in its SEO Starter Guide like this: when you build your website, you think about your visitors. One of those visitors is a search engine, which helps people discover your content. SEO means helping that search engine understand, and helping people decide whether to click on your page.
According to the same guide, the foundation for this is the Google Search Essentials, Google's basic rules for search. Sites that follow them are more likely to show up in the search results, but that is not guaranteed. According to Google, SEO is the next step: working on your website's presence in search.
Google is also honest about what SEO is not: there are no secrets that automatically put your page in first place. But following the best practices makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your content, and according to Google, not just for Google.
By the way: you may also come across "SEO optimization". That says the same thing twice, because the O in SEO already stands for optimization.
How Google finds and ranks search results
In its in-depth guide to how Google Search works (as of December 2025), Google explains that search runs fully automatically. Programs called crawlers search the web regularly, and Google finds the vast majority of pages in its results by itself, without anyone submitting them. According to Google, search works in three stages, and not every page makes it through every stage.
1. Crawling (finding and fetching pages): Because there is no central registry of all web pages, Google constantly looks for new and changed pages. Some Google already knows, others it finds through links from known pages, and still others through a sitemap, a list of your pages that you give to Google. The program that fetches the pages is called Googlebot. It renders the page like a recent version of the Chrome browser and also runs JavaScript. According to Google, problems arise for example when the server does not respond properly, the network has issues, or rules in the robots.txt (the file that allows or blocks programs from parts of your website) block access.
2. Indexing (understanding and storing pages): Next, Google tries to understand what the page is about. To do this, it analyzes text, page titles, image alt text, images, videos and more. If there are several very similar pages, Google picks one of them as the main version, the so-called canonical page. What Google knows about the page can be stored in the Google index, a large database. Here too: not every page gets into the index. According to Google, reasons can be low-quality content, instructions on the page that forbid indexing, or a website design that makes indexing difficult.
3. Serving results: When someone enters a search, Google looks in the index for matching pages and shows the ones it considers the highest quality and most relevant. According to Google, relevance is determined by hundreds of factors, for example the location, language and device of the person searching. Google gives an example: someone searching for a bicycle repair shop gets different results in Paris than in Hong Kong.
Two statements from Google's guide are worth remembering. First: Google does not accept payment to crawl a website more often or rank it higher. According to Google, anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. Second: Google does not guarantee that it will crawl, index or show a page, even if it follows all the basic rules.
The three areas of work: technology, content and links
The split into technology, content and links is our simplification. Google itself organizes its basic rules for search (as of December 2025) into technical requirements, spam policies and key best practices.
Technology: Google must be able to reach and read your pages
According to Google, the technical requirements are the bare minimum for a place in the results. Most websites meet them without even realizing it.
According to the SEO Starter Guide, you usually don't need to do anything except publish your website for Google to find it. You can check whether Google already knows your pages with a search for site: and your domain. It is important that Google sees your page the same way an average visitor does, which means it must also be allowed to fetch the files for layout and features. The URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console, Google's tool for website owners, shows you how Google sees a single page. A sitemap can help, but according to Google it is not required. And if the same content can be reached at several addresses, according to the guide Google can usually figure out by itself which address to show.
Content: helpful, clear, in your customers' words
According to Google, creating content that people find compelling and useful will likely influence your presence in search more than any of the other tips in the SEO Starter Guide. Google names a few shared traits:
- The text is easy to read and well organized, with paragraphs and subheadings.
- You write what you know about the topic yourself and do not copy from others.
- The content is up to date: you check older posts and update them as needed, or delete them if they are no longer relevant.
- The content is helpful and reliable, for example with sources from experts or people with experience.
Then there are the words people search with. In its basic rules, Google advises using the words people would use to look for your content, and placing them in prominent locations: in the page title, in the main heading, in image alt text and in link text. According to the guide, experts often search with different words than beginners. But you don't have to anticipate every variation; according to Google, it also understands related terms.
What does not help: repeating the same words over and over. This keyword stuffing tires readers and, according to Google, is against its spam policies. According to Google, there is also no ideal text length; length alone does not matter for ranking. And according to the guide, Google does not use the keywords meta tag in your page's code at all.
Our recommendation (Google does not say this): write down the questions customers ask you on the phone, by email or in your shop, and answer them on your website in exactly those words.
Links: paths to your website
According to the SEO Starter Guide, links are the main way Google finds new pages. Google finds the vast majority of the new pages it discovers every day through links. According to Google, other sites linking to you is something that happens naturally over time. But you can help more people discover your content by promoting your website.
Links also play a role in which pages match a search. In the Google Ads Help article on how search results differ from ads, Google writes that it matches websites to a search using, among other things, the text on the page and the links to that page. At the same time, Google stresses in the guide: PageRank, one of Google's fundamental methods, does use links, but there are many ranking signals, and PageRank is just one of them.
For your own links, Google advises link text that says what is behind the link. According to Google, you can promote your website through word of mouth, being active in communities, putting the address on business cards and letterhead, or a newsletter to people who have agreed to receive it. You should not overdo it, though, because readers can grow tired of your promotion, and according to Google, search engines may see some practices as manipulation of search results.
SEO and paid search ads: the difference
When people search on Google, according to Google Ads Help they find two types of results: search results and ads.
- Ads, according to Google, are labeled "Ads" and usually appear along the edge of the page, like the top, side or bottom. The order of the ads is based on a combination of the cost-per-click bid and relevance. This is advertising that you pay for through Google Ads.
- Search results usually appear in the middle of the page. Google orders them based on things like relevance to the search and popularity. According to Google, they are independent of its advertising programs.
On its page "How ads work on Google Search", Google also writes: businesses can advertise in clearly marked ad sections. Because Google only sells ad space, no one can buy better placement in the organic results. According to this page, for most searches Google shows no ads at all. And Google's page "Do you need an SEO?" (as of June 2026) says clearly: advertising with Google won't have any effect on your site's presence in the search results.
So SEO and ads are two separate paths. Our recommendation (Google does not say this): see ads as a way to be visible immediately for as long as you pay, and SEO as work on visibility that is not tied to every single click.
How long does SEO take?
Google does not give a fixed timeframe. The SEO Starter Guide (as of December 2025) says: every change takes some time before Google reflects it. Some changes might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months. According to Google, it is best to wait a few weeks before assessing whether a change has made a difference. And not every change to your website results in a noticeable impact in the search results. If you are not happy with the results, Google advises trying further changes.
On the page "Do you need an SEO?", Google also recommends asking an SEO service provider, before hiring them, what results they expect and in what timeframe. In our view, this means: plan SEO in months, not days, and check in Search Console what happens after each major change.
What an SEO can and cannot promise
On its page "Do you need an SEO?", Google writes: an SEO, meaning a specialist or agency for search engine optimization, can improve your website's visibility and save you time, but a dishonest one can also damage your website and your reputation.
What an SEO can do, according to Google: review your website's content and structure, give technical advice (for example on hosting, redirects, error pages or JavaScript), develop content, research search terms, provide training, bring expertise in specific markets and regions, and optimize for generative AI. According to Google, a good time is a site redesign or a new website, and the earlier, the better. According to Google, an SEO audit should give you realistic estimates of what can be improved and how much work that involves. For this, you only grant read access in Search Console.
What no one can promise: Google makes clear that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. According to Google, be careful if someone:
- guarantees you that their changes will put you in first place,
- claims a "special relationship" with Google or offers a "priority submit" to Google,
- is secretive and won't clearly explain what they intend to do,
- emails you out of the blue,
- asks you to link to them, talks about link popularity schemes or wants to submit your site to thousands of search engines.
According to Google, third-party SEO tools don't have access to Google's internal ranking data. Important for you: according to Google, you are ultimately responsible for everything a service provider you hire does on your website. If they create misleading content, your website could even be removed entirely from the Google index.
Do you need an SEO at all? If you run a small local business, according to Google you can probably do much of the work yourself. Google recommends starting with the SEO Starter Guide. That also makes it easier to recognize later whether a service provider is doing something Google advises against. What matters especially for businesses with a fixed address is summarized in our district SEO & GEO for Local Business. If you travel to your customers, you will find more in the district SEO & GEO for Service Area Business.
SEO and AI answers
Google counts optimizing for generative AI among the services that SEOs offer (page "Do you need an SEO?"). If someone offers you advice under names like "AEO" or "GEO", Google advises checking whether that advice is aligned with Google's official guidance on the AI features in Search. Our guide GEO: how your business shows up in ChatGPT, Gemini and others explains what GEO is.
Read more in the SERP TOWN Library
- GEO: how your business shows up in ChatGPT, Gemini and others: How AI answers come about and what you can do to show up in them.
- Create and optimize your Google Business Profile: Step by step to your own listing in Google Search and Google Maps.
- You can find all guides in the SERP TOWN Library.
Your next step
Want to know where your business stands on Google and in AI answers? Take the 3-question check from SERP TOWN. It shows you which business type you are and where your biggest levers on Google and in AI answers are. If you like, you can then send us a request: we will look at your website and send you a short teaser with a few tips.