SEO works by aligning your website with how search engines define good search results. Apply SEO best practices to make your site easier to find, navigate, and rank higher in search results. These steps will strengthen your SEO foundation, whether you’re starting fresh or improving existing efforts. Also, research from Ziff Davis shows LLMs like Open AI prefer content from authoritative websites.
Of course, search engines keep the exact calculations of their algorithms in secret. White hat SEO, on the other hand, refers to all the regular SEO techniques that stick to the guidelines and rules. It is a long-term strategy in which good rankings are a side-product of good optimization, quality content, and a user-oriented approach. Back when search engines lacked a lot of the sophistication they have today, the term “10 blue links” was coined to describe the flat structure of the SERP.
Google’s Recent Algorithm Update Does Not Target AI Content
It’s better to NoIndex these pages and gate them behind a login form rather than place them in your robots.txt file. Most people think about making sure Google can find their important pages, but it’s easy to forget that there are likely pages you don’t want Googlebot to find. These might include things like old URLs that have thin content, duplicate URLs (such as sort-and-filter parameters for e-commerce), special promo code pages, staging or test pages, and so on.
- This is a tab on the SERPs that allows users to see results from TikTok, YouTube, Quora, Reddit, tweets, and more.
- To keep improving, it’s crucial to measure performance using tools like Google Analytics or Google Search Console, watching for increases in organic search traffic and conversion rates.
- Providing relevant, high-quality content on your website will help you rank higher in search results, and more importantly, it will establish credibility and trust with your online audience.
Step 3: Optimize Your Website
There are plenty of free resources available if you need help understanding its features. In this article I will go in depth with the 20 best SEO tools to make the information a bit more consumable. There are plenty of great SEO tools out there, but we compiled the best 74 from 2025 and go in-depth with the top 20. OWDT is a leading SEO company that can assist you to maximize the authority and reach of your brand. We excel at translating subtleties of our customer’s values and character with demonstrated record of increasing website visit and conversions.
It ensures that your company shows up when potential customers search for services or products “near me” or in a specific city, town, or neighborhood. PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, is a type of digital marketing where advertisers bid on specific keywords they want their ads to show up for in search results. When someone searches for those keywords, the ads appear at the top of the results page and if clicked on the advertisers pay-per-click. For example, it’ll make sense for many people to start with their homepage. Your homepage is meant to offer an overview to your audience and likely direct them to browse your store, services, or content or learn more about you.
Ask An SEO: My Content Can’t Be Seen When I Disable JavaScript – Will This Affect My SEO?
While your Google Business Profile SEO Anomaly (GBP) acts as the front door, your website is the foundation that tells search engines exactly who you are, where you serve, and why locals should choose you. Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the art and science of optimizing your online presence to attract more business from local searches. It’s about ensuring your business shows up when someone types “near me” or searches for a service in your city, town, or neighborhood.