12 Things to Know About SEO
On-site SEO doesn't have to be complex
Busting the common myths around search engine optimisation.
Here are 12 questions worth asking about SEO, and the straight answers you deserve, before you get started or before you spend money with someone who promises you page one of Google.
How do we get our website to appear at the top of Google?
A webpage’s position in search results is determined by a combination of factors: relevance to the keyword you are trying to rank for, the trustworthiness of your site, the quality of your content, and the competition you are up against. Google’s algorithm evaluates hundreds of signals to decide which pages deserve the top spots, and it is getting more sophisticated at making those judgements all the time.
Getting there means working to make your website more relevant and more trustworthy than competing websites over time. That involves a mix of on-page optimisation, high quality content, a solid technical foundation, and building the kind of authority that search engines recognise and reward. Some of these factors you can address quickly, others take time to develop and compound.
There are no shortcuts worth taking. Tactics that attempt to game the algorithm tend to produce short term gains at best, and can result in penalties that are difficult to recover from. A consistent, considered approach built around genuinely useful content and a well structured website will always produce more durable results.
What do you mean when you talk about making my site more 'relevant'?
When a user searches Google for a keyword, the results page displays websites in descending order of relevance and trustworthiness. Google is trying to serve the most useful, accurate answer to the searcher’s query, and it has become increasingly sophisticated at doing so.
Relevance is built by creating high quality content that is genuinely useful to your audience and clearly focused on the keywords and topics you want to rank for. This includes how those keywords appear in your page titles, headings, web addresses, and body content, but good SEO for today’s websites goes beyond basic keyword placement. Google now evaluates whether your content demonstrates real knowledge and expertise on the subject, rewards well-structured, readable pages, and favours sites that answer questions thoroughly and honestly.
The goal is not to trick search engines but to give them every reason to trust that your page is the best result for a given search.
What do you mean making my site 'trustworthy'?
Trustworthiness is one of the most significant factors in how Google evaluates and ranks your website. Today, Google frames this through a set of principles known as E-E-A-T, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is Google’s way of asking: does this website demonstrate genuine knowledge and real world experience of the subject it is covering?
Trust can be built in a number of ways. Getting links from other reputable, relevant websites remains important, as each quality link acts as a signal that others vouch for your content. A strong presence on social media, mentions in articles and blogs, and positive customer reviews all contribute too. Technical factors also play a role: a secure site with an SSL certificate, clear contact information, a well structured privacy policy, and transparent authorship all send positive trust signals to search engines.
The good news is that if you are genuinely good at what you do and communicate it clearly and honestly on your website, you are already laying the right foundations.
What do you mean when you talk about search engine rankings?
When someone searches on Google, they are presented with a list of results relevant to their query, displayed in descending order with the most relevant and trustworthy pages at the top. These are known as the search engine results pages, or SERPs. Where your website appears in those results for a given keyword is your ranking.
One of the main goals of SEO is to get your website as high up those results as possible, specifically for keywords that real people are actively searching for and that are likely to generate enquiries or sales for your business.
It is worth noting that recently the search results page looks quite different to how it did even a few years ago. Google’s AI Overviews now appear above the traditional organic results for many queries, summarising answers directly on the page. This is changing how clicks are distributed and makes it more important than ever to ensure your content is structured clearly, authoritative, and genuinely useful, the kind of content Google is likely to reference and cite.
What do you mean by a 'keyword'?
A keyword is the word or phrase someone types into a search engine when looking for information, a product, or a service. For example, someone looking for a plumber in Bristol might search for “emergency plumber Bristol” or “boiler repair Bristol.” Those are keywords, and ranking well for the right ones can make a significant difference to the volume and quality of traffic your website receives.
One of the most common mistakes businesses make is optimising their website for keywords they assume people are searching for, rather than the ones they actually are. Good keyword research uses specialist tools to identify phrases that have genuine search volume, are relevant to your business, and are realistically achievable to rank for given the competition.
It is also worth understanding that Google has become very good at interpreting the intent behind a search, not just the words themselves. This means that writing naturally and thoroughly about a topic, rather than repeating a keyword as many times as possible, is far more effective than it once was. Quality and relevance always win over keyword stuffing.
Can you guarantee our search engine rankings?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise should be approached with serious caution. No reputable SEO professional or agency can guarantee a specific position in Google’s organic search results. Google’s algorithm is complex, constantly evolving, and ultimately beyond anyone’s control.
What good SEO can do is build your rankings gradually and sustainably over time, through thorough keyword research, quality content, technical optimisation, and a growing base of trust signals that are genuinely earned. That last point matters: buying backlinks or using link schemes might seem like a shortcut, but Google is increasingly effective at identifying unnatural link profiles, and the penalties can be severe and slow to recover from.
Be particularly wary of anyone promising page one results quickly, or using vague language about “guaranteed visibility” or “top positions.” These claims are almost always either misleading or achieved through tactics that will ultimately harm your site’s reputation with Google. In SEO, slow and steady always wins.
I was told you could pay to appear at the top of Google?
Yes, and it is a legitimate option in the right context. Google Ads allows businesses to bid for prominent positions above and alongside the organic search results for specific keywords. You pay each time someone clicks on your advert, which is why this model is known as pay-per-click or PPC.
Google Ads campaigns can be effective, particularly for new websites that have not yet built up organic rankings, or for time-sensitive promotions where you need visibility quickly. However, the costs can mount up fast, especially in competitive markets, and the moment you stop paying, the traffic stops too.
It is also worth knowing that most users are well aware of the difference between paid and organic results. Studies consistently show that organic listings attract significantly more clicks and carry more trust than paid advertisements. For long term, sustainable growth, a solid position in Google’s organic results is far more valuable than a paid placement, but the two approaches are not mutually exclusive and can work well together as part of a broader marketing strategy.
What do you mean by organic search results?
Organic search results are the listings that appear in Google because the search engine has determined they are genuinely relevant and trustworthy for a given search query. They are earned rather than paid for, and that distinction matters both to Google and to the people searching.
The modern search results page has become more complex than it once was. As well as traditional organic listings, a typical results page might include Google Ads at the top, a local map pack, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, shopping results, and increasingly, AI Overviews that attempt to answer a query directly on the page without the user needing to click through to a website at all.
Understanding this landscape is important because it affects how you approach your SEO strategy. Appearing in a featured snippet or being referenced in an AI Overview can drive significant visibility even if your traditional organic ranking is not in the top few positions. Structuring your content clearly, answering questions directly, and demonstrating genuine expertise all improve your chances of appearing in these newer search features.
Can we SEO our own website?
Yes, absolutely, and many businesses do. With tools like Yoast SEO and Rank Math making on-page optimisation more accessible than ever, and a wealth of free guidance available online, the basics are well within reach for someone prepared to invest the time.
The honest caveat is that time is the key word. Effective SEO is not a one-off task. It involves ongoing keyword research, content creation, technical maintenance, performance monitoring, and keeping pace with how search engines are evolving. For many small business owners, that is time that could be spent running the business.
There are also technical layers that go beyond content and keywords. Page load speed, Core Web Vitals, mobile performance, structured data markup, crawl efficiency, and internal linking structure all contribute to how well a site ranks, and getting these right requires a level of technical knowledge that takes time to develop. Done poorly, some of these can actively harm your rankings rather than help them.
If you have the time and appetite to learn, DIY SEO is a perfectly viable starting point. But for businesses serious about ranking well in a competitive market, working with someone who does this day in and day out will almost always produce better results more efficiently.
How long does it take to improve my rankings?
There is no single honest answer to this, and anyone who gives you a precise timeline without knowing your website, your market, and your competition should be treated with caution.
That said, some general patterns hold true. Brand new websites and domains tend to take longer to gain traction, as search engines naturally favour sites that have been around for a while and have built up a track record of trust and relevance. For an established site with a solid technical foundation, a well-executed SEO campaign might start showing meaningful improvements within three to six months. For highly competitive keywords, it can take considerably longer.
It is also worth understanding that the search landscape is shifting. With AI Overviews, featured snippets, and other search features now occupying more of the results page, the relationship between ranking position and actual traffic is more nuanced than it once was. A page that ranks fifth but appears in a featured snippet can outperform a page that ranks second with no additional visibility.
The most useful way to think about SEO is as a long-term investment rather than a quick fix. Consistent effort applied over time, through quality content, technical improvements, and growing authority, produces results that compound and endure.
What is Domain Authority and how does it affect my rankings?
You may have come across the term PageRank, which was Google’s original publicly visible scoring system for web pages. Google retired that public score some years ago, but the underlying principle, that the quality and quantity of sites linking to yours affects how much Google trusts it, remains as relevant as ever.
Today, tools like Moz, Ahrefs, and Semrush use their own metrics, most commonly Domain Authority or Domain Rating, to give you a practical indication of how your site’s trust and link profile compares to competitors. These are third party scores rather than official Google metrics, but they are widely used and genuinely useful as a relative benchmark.
What they are measuring, in broad terms, is the strength of your backlink profile. A link from a well-established, reputable website in your industry carries far more weight than dozens of links from low quality or irrelevant sites. Building a strong, natural backlink profile takes time, but it remains one of the most significant factors in how well your site performs in search.
Why is it important to rank in the top five positions of the search results?
The higher your position in the search results, the more clicks you are likely to receive, and the drop-off between positions is steep. Research consistently shows that the top three organic results attract the majority of clicks for a given search, with position one commanding a significantly higher share than position two, and so on down the page.
However, the picture has become more nuanced in recent years. AI Overviews, featured snippets, local map packs, and People Also Ask boxes all now compete for attention above and alongside the traditional organic listings. For some searches, a well-structured page that appears in a featured snippet or AI Overview can generate strong visibility even from a lower ranking position.
What this means in practice is that chasing a specific ranking position is less useful than focusing on the overall visibility and quality of your content. A page that answers questions clearly, demonstrates genuine expertise, and is structured in a way that search engines can easily interpret has the best chance of performing well across all of these features, not just the traditional top ten.
The goal, as ever, is to be the most useful, credible, and relevant result for the searches that matter most to your business.