SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the practice of improving your website so it shows up — and ranks well — when people search for what you offer on engines like Google. The goal is earning visits from unpaid (“organic”) search results.

Why it matters

For most small businesses, search is still the largest source of new visitors, and unlike ads, organic search traffic doesn’t cost per click. Ranking on page one for the questions your customers ask is often the difference between being found and being invisible.

The three pillars

SEO comes down to three things: content that genuinely answers what people search for, on-page signals like clear titles and structure that help engines understand a page, and technical health and credibility — fast pages, mobile-friendly, and links from other sites.

A note for today

SEO traditionally aimed at a ranked list of links. As AI assistants increasingly answer questions directly, the related discipline of GEO — being cited inside AI answers — is becoming its companion.