Marketing
What is SEO? A beginner's guide for business owners
SEO, short for search engine optimisation, is the work of making your website easier for search engines to find, understand and show to the right people. Done well, it brings visitors who are already looking for what you offer, without paying for every click. This guide explains how search engines work, what actually influences your ranking and the first steps you can take yourself.
In short
- SEO means making your site easy to find and genuinely useful for the people searching, not tricking Google.
- Search engines work in three steps: they crawl pages, add them to an index and rank the results for each search.
- The basics are good content, clear page titles, a fast mobile site and links from other websites.
- Results take months, so measure in Google Search Console and improve one thing at a time.
- You can take the first steps yourself, without an agency.
What SEO is and why it matters
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It is everything you do so that a search engine such as Google or Bing understands your website and shows it when someone searches for what you offer. The traffic that arrives this way is called organic, because you do not pay per click.
That is why SEO matters for small businesses. Someone who types “bike repair Utrecht” or “buy running shoes” already wants something. If your page answers that need, you reach them at the right moment. Unlike an ad, a page that ranks well keeps bringing visitors long after you published it.
SEO is not a trick. Search engines want to show the most helpful result, so the lasting way to rank is to be the most helpful result for a specific search.
SEO is also not
- A setting you switch on once
- Buying links or repeating keywords until the text no longer reads well
- A promise of position one
- The same as advertising
How a search engine works
A search engine works in three steps. First it crawls: automated programs follow links from page to page and discover what exists. Then it indexes: it stores and analyses what it found, such as the text, images and page titles. Finally it ranks: when someone searches, it picks the pages from its index that fit best and puts them in order.
This explains two common problems. A page that has no links pointing to it, or that is blocked, may never be found. And a page that is found but adds nothing new may be indexed and still never show up high. Google decides the order with many signals and does not publish the exact list, so be careful with anyone who claims to know the formula.
The three steps
- Crawling: finding your pages through links and your sitemap
- Indexing: understanding and storing what is on the page
- Ranking: choosing the best match for each search
Good to know
SitePack creates a sitemap for you and tells Bing and other search engines about new and changed pages through IndexNow. Google finds changes through your sitemap.
The four parts of SEO
SEO is usually split into four parts. Content is what you write and show: pages that answer the question behind a search. On-page SEO is how each page is set up: a clear title, a description, headings, a readable URL and descriptive alt texts on images. Technical SEO is whether the site works well: fast, mobile friendly, secure with HTTPS and free of broken links. Authority is whether other sites trust yours, shown mostly by links from other websites and by mentions.
For a small business, content and on-page SEO give the quickest results, because you control them completely. Technical SEO is often handled by your platform. Authority builds slowly and comes mostly from being genuinely useful and well known in your market.
Where to start
- Write one page per service or product, in your customers' words
- Give every page a clear title and description
- Check that your site loads fast on a phone
- Ask partners and suppliers to link to you
- Publish your business details and opening hours
Good to know
In SitePack every page and blog post has its own SEO title, meta description and focus keyword, with tips and a Google preview in the editor. HTTPS, a sitemap and canonical URLs are generated for you.
Keywords: the words your customers use
A keyword is the word or phrase someone types into a search engine. Keyword research means finding out which words your customers use and matching your pages to them. Customers rarely use your internal names. A café owner may talk about a “hospitality concept” while customers search for “lunch near me”.
Choose one main keyword per page and use it naturally in the title, the main heading and the first paragraph. Do not repeat it in a forced way: search engines recognise related words, and writing for people ranks better than writing for robots. Pick specific phrases such as “wedding photographer Utrecht” over broad ones such as “photographer”. Fewer people search for them, but those people are closer to a decision, and they are easier to rank for.
Ways to find keywords
- Type your topic into Google and read the suggestions
- Look at the “People also ask” box
- Check which questions customers send you
- Read the queries in Google Search Console once your site has visitors
- Use a free keyword tool to compare search volumes
Measuring SEO and being patient
SEO takes time. A new page often needs weeks to be indexed and several months to reach its position, and the result depends on how much competition there is for the term. That is normal and not a sign that something is wrong.
Measure with Google Search Console, which is free. It shows which searches your pages appear for, how often people click and where you rank. Look for pages with many impressions but few clicks: they usually need a better title or description. Improve one thing at a time so you can see what worked, and check back monthly rather than daily.
A simple monthly routine
- Open Search Console and check clicks and impressions
- Improve the titles of pages with many impressions and few clicks
- Fix pages that are not indexed
- Publish or improve one useful page
- Ask for a review or a link where it fits
Good to know
The free SEO check and SERP preview on sitepack.eu show how a page looks in Google.
Keep reading
- How to make a website A step-by-step guide to your first site.
- SEO for online stores Category pages, product texts and the technical basics.
- Free SEO check Check a page for the SEO basics, free.
- Pricing Everything included, see the current plans.
- Try a website free for 14 days Build your site before you pay anything.
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