Understanding SEO Basics in 2025 (and How to Use it)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a tool used to optimize a website's features to increase total impressions made on search engine users. Like other aspects of digital marketing, the purpose of SEO is to improve visibility of a business or brand. This is important for creating leads for potential consumers. Let's learn more about what SEO, what SEO isn't, and why it matters.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website's code and markup elements to improve its visibility and rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO has evolved over the years, with search engines (namely Google) making advancements in how they rank websites. It continues to evolve, as Google still makes multiple changes to its algorithm every year. Although Google has kept its algorithm a secret, SEO experts have researched, analyzed, and experimented with numerous strategies to identify adsasddasdas.

There are three main categories that affect overall SEO: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.

• On-page SEO covers the markup elements, meta tags, and internal links of a website. These are the HTML markups that make up the contents of a page.
• Off-page SEO covers a brand's reputation and backlinks that lead to the website. This is directly tied to a business’s trustworthiness and authority of a topic like what products or services they offer.
• Technical SEO covers the user experience, security, and loading speed of a website. The technical elements have to do with the overall coding and how clean, responsive, and efficient they are. This includes the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, and more files.

These three factors come together to determine a website's place on a search result with relevant keywords.

What SEO Isn't

At first glance, SEO may seem like a simple task that any web developer can incorporate. This is not the case. Because of Google's constantly evolving search engine algorithm, it is imperative for a website to be audited and optimized regularly. SEO isn't just adding keywords wherever possible; Google is smarter than that. They adapt to user needs and behaviors through years of user research and data analysis.

Why is SEO Important?

The purpose of creating digital presence of any form is to increase visibility and brand awareness, as well as create leads for potential consumers or conversions, depending on business goals. With the amount of people searching for information, services, and products on search engines, SEO has become more important than ever to stand out from competitors.

• As of 2025, there are approximately 8.5 billion Google searches made every day.
• In 2019, BrightEdge published a study, finding that organic searches are responsible for 53% of site traffic, with pay-per-click ads accounting for 15%. Through this study, we find importance in a website's visibility on search engines.
• Research conducted by Backlinko found that the #1 result on Google's organic search results have an average Click-Through-Rate (CTR) of 27.6%. They also found that the #1 search result is 10x more likely to receive a click compared to a search result in the #10 spot.

These findings come together to form a clear pattern of consumer behavior.

• They start with a Google search on a product, service, or topic
• Find a trusted, high-ranking website to look into their search
• Make decisions on purchases.

The key takeaway: capitalize on Google’s algorithm and consumer behavior to optimize your website and increase CTR and quality leads!

SEO in the Modern Landscape

Google's search engine algorithm isn't the only thing that continuously changes. Over the past few years, Google has experimented with different layouts and features on their search engine.

• An emerging feature that changes the landscape of Google's search engine is the AI overview. With AI overviews now essentially taking the "top spot" of Google search results, it becomes even more important for businesses to incorporate effective SEO strategies for their websites.
• Pay-per-click ads also take up "top spots" on search results, which moves other websites further and further down the search page.
• Another feature to consider is Google's featured snippets. Featured snippets are highlighted passages of text that provide a brief answer to a user's query.

Google continues to add or experiment with new features in their search engine, while updating their search engine algorithm accordingly. Although this makes SEO more complicated, it also opens new avenues to success in improving visibility in the digital space.

SEO is a Long-Term Investment

As I've covered up to this point, search engine algorithms evolve over time, along with users' needs and behaviors. Success in SEO requires careful planning, strategizing, and regular monitoring. While there are quick implementations that can boost a website’s SEO ranking immediately, most SEO factors take months of trial and error to show lasting results. New trends and changes in algorithm impact search results, and SEO experts stay up-to-date to ensure their businesses maintain high search engine rankings.

Conclusion

SEO is the process of refining a website's on-page, off-page, and technical elements to improve its rankings on search results. It is a complex tool that requires regular, careful monitoring, but its effects are undeniably beneficial for businesses in the digital world. The key to successful SEO is to learn the basic elements and staying updated with SEO professionals to stay ahead of competitors. In a digital world where visibility is everything, investing in SEO isn't just a smart move—it's a necessary one to stay competitive and connect with your target audience.