What is SEO Marketing? Definition, Importance, and Types 2025

Stay attuned to industry trends, emerging keywords, and changes in search behavior to keep your keyword strategy up-to-date and effective. There’s a ton of information out there, and search engine algorithms are constantly changing. Let’s get started and learn how to make your website show up higher in online searches. SEO can be complex and often raises many questions, especially for those new to digital marketing or looking to improve their website performance. Below, we address some of the most frequently asked questions about SEO.

How long does SEO take to show results?

• When we talk about local SEO, we’re looking to rank in search results that are localized like in Google Maps.
• Begin by adjusting the drop-down “Volume” filter to above 1,000.
• In summary, SEO is all about optimizing content, building authority, and improving the overall user experience on your site.
• The best way to do this is to make sure they don’t want to go back to Google and click on another result.
• Using tools like Google Analytics, you can track website traffic and determine which pages on your site are the most popular.

There are few rules in marketing that can’t be bent or broken, so be open-minded when developing your own content marketing plan. For example, if you look at job listings for content writers, you’ll see lots of job descriptions that require writers to write only really long articles that are 2,000+ words. To rectify the issue, some businesses will insert a sales pitch or incorporate their product into every piece of content they write. One study from Hubspot found that companies with 400 or more blog posts per month got twice as much traffic.

AI Agents vs Agentic Workflows: The Difference for Marketing Teams

Google uses a multi-step process to discover, store, and rank web pages. For “on-page seo” query, the top two results are Semrush and Backlinko. The site has fairly stable SEO traffic, and is sitting around 20-30K monthly visitors just from SEO. But that traffic is very valuable because it’s all super bottom-of-funnel traffic to software products. For example, if I start searching “roofing companies…” near me comes up.

Type keywords such as “title tag,” “meta description,” or “H1 tag” into the search bar to filter and display only the relevant results. Add structured data to relevant URLs to provide search engines greater context. Use Google’s free Structured Data Markup Helper tool, plus its Rich Results Test tool, to create and verify your markup before installation. Off-site optimizations include acquiring reputable backlinks, claiming and optimizing local listings, managing online reviews, and engaging in online communities. How content appears in the search results is based on these factors, plus more than 200 other factors. These ranking factors (which are not weighted equally) cover everything from website security and online reputation to content helpfulness and authority.

What Are SEO Best Practices?

Specifically, before I write a single word, I figure out my target keyword’s Search Intent. Back in the day I’d write content that I THOUGHT would rank on the first page of Google. And you’ll quickly get an idea of what “high” and “low” is for your industry.

When lots of people click on your result in Google, you can find yourself with higher rankings for that term. However, following search engines, best practices can help give your SEO meaning. …it is inevitable that the search engines will eventually figure out what you are doing and penalize your site. By giving your SEO meaning, you can catch the attention of more search engine users. But, you can increase your chances of improving off-page SEO simply by creating quality content that others will find valuable.

We strive to understand your business and your target audience so your strategy is unique to you and your goals. Every client receives a dedicated account manager as your primary point of contact and strategic partner. Your account manager is backed by a team of experts in all areas of SEO (content creation, backlinks, on-page optimization, technical SEO) who know your industry. Search engines like Google rely on trust signals of authority from reputable places in order to determine how your site should rank.

As mentioned before, featured snippets offer increased visibility for your site by appearing at the top of search results lists. They also help train you to quickly answer search intent, making your content more helpful. By targeting keywords most relevant to your business and audience, you’ll attract qualified web traffic to your site. Without proper keyword optimization, you’ll miss out on the valuable traffic and leads that come from targeting terms related to your core offerings and business objectives. Through your keyword research, you’ll identify keywords relevant to your business.

For businesses that want to bring in expert help selectively, hiring freelancers can be a reasonable solution. Freelancers typically specialize in specific areas of SEO, such as content creation, link building, or technical SEO. Costs can vary significantly, typically ranging from BHS Links $50 to $300 per hour, depending on the freelancer’s experience and the complexity of the project. Similarly, for the garden center, Cadence ensured that every page adhered to SEO best practices by fixing meta tags and headers and adding internal links to key pages. These steps improved SEO performance and the overall user experience. In simple terms, when you search for something online, search engines sift through their index to find relevant pages.

Another reason to post content consistently on your site is that your top content is out-of-date. Besides connecting the right topics with searches, Google will also evaluate the age of the content. If a visitor doesn’t see any value in your blog, they’ll click away in seconds. Not only is this a lost customer but it could affect your ranking.