Header tags help to identify the headings and subheadings of your content. H1 is the main heading of a page, the H2 tag SEO Anomaly is a subheading of H1, and so on. These tags help search engines to read and understand the content better.
SEMrush
By understanding what people are searching for online, you can create and optimize your content to align with those specific queries. As a result, your potential customers will be more likely to discover your web pages in search results when they enter relevant keywords. With search engines like Google, the process consists of crawling, indexing, and ranking. The crawler is an online bot that scours the web to collect all the pages out there and save them in a gigantic database called the index. This index is constantly updated with new pages or updated versions of existing ones. When someone searches online, the search engine calls on the index and uses complex algorithms to determine which pages are relevant to show.
It’s super easy – start by entering your key phrase, then it’ll analyze your content and provide a list of suggestions for optimization. When people search for “doctors near me” or “pet stores near me”, search engines will identify their locations through their IP addresses and present relevant results accordingly. To get a spot on local search results, it is necessary to optimize your local SEO.
Let’s finish off with some SEO strategies, best practices, and tips to help you get the most out of your time. You can refer to our more in-depth how-to on keyword research here. Image SEO relies heavily on technical and on-page optimizations while local SEO is more about off-page and on-page optimizations. People are searching for any manner of things both loosely and directly related to your business. These are all opportunities to connect with these people, answer their questions, solve their problems, and become a trusted resource for them. For example, the H1 on this page is the article title, “Understanding On-page SEO” is an H2, and this section is an H3.
What is SEO and How It Works for Small Businesses in 2025
You may have already begun to notice, but Google Search is now starting to look a lot different. Instead of just a long list of links relevant to your searches, there are now AI-generated responses based on your queries above the fold. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, alludes to optimizing a website’s substance, structure, and other components to make strides in its permeability on look motor comes about pages (SERPs).
The organic results are determined by Google’s complex algorithm (which has 200+ ranking signals). For example, let’s say you rank your site on the first page of Google for the keyword “how to start a website”. The organic results are “earned” placements that are determined by Google’s algorithm to be the overall best, most relevant results for a given search. The paid results are from advertisers bidding on keywords via Google Ads.
According to studies, more than 70% of search engine users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions in the search engine results pages (SERPS). Search engines are working hard to get a better understanding of a user’s search intent, to show that user the results that fit their need best. Related to that, they continue to improve how information is presented in the search results, which can differ quite a bit per search intent.
Especially if you have a small website with a couple of well-interlinked pages. It’s basic advice, sure, but it’s amazing how many sites I come across where this is in place. So they’ll have a headline, post snippet and a Click here or Read more button in a vertical line. As you can imagine, ‘Read more’ is the only link they have in place.
- When consumers are looking for information about a particular topic or product, the starting point is often a search engine.
- Overall, technical SEO is a foundational component of an SEO strategy that supports your on-page and off-page SEO efforts.
- Featured snippet (sometimes called “position zero”) is a selected search result that appears above the standard 10 results in Google search.
- The accompanying screenshot highlights how our strategic GBP optimization, regular updates, and targeted backlink strategy have propelled Pape-Dawson to consistently dominate the local map pack.
- Well, you can explore the intricacies of algorithms and easily adapt your SEO strategy by gaining insights from seasoned experts.
- Cathal Melinn is a well-known Digital Marketing Director, commercial analyst, and eommerce specialist with over 15 years’ experience.
If you’re on a tight budget, we have a free backlink checker that’s halfway decent. Last up, I recommend promoting your content to people who link to your competitors. Plus, multimedia makes your content much more interesting and compelling. Multimedia may not strictly fall under the category of “SEO writing”. But images, infographics and videos are super important for SEO. So I recommend writing a unique meta description for every page on your site.
It may also be useful to check your content against other pages ranking for your chosen keyword. For example, if competitor content has a compelling and friendly tone, you can mirror this to meet the expectations of your audience. If an image file size is too big, it may slow the load speed of your site. Consider compressing large image files where possible to aid load speed without losing out on quality and limiting large animated images.
