What Is Search Engine Optimization? SEO and Keywords Explained

Search engine optimization, usually shortened to SEO, is the ongoing work of helping a website appear in search results for the things your customers look for. It has a technical side, such as how pages are built, named and linked, and a creative side, such as deciding what to say and how to say it clearly. The goal is not to please a search engine for its own sake. A search engine's job is to send each person to a page that answers the question they asked, so good SEO is mostly about making your site the obvious answer: easy for the engine to read, and genuinely helpful to the person who lands there.

When someone searches for a product or service, the businesses they see get considered and the rest do not. Most people do not dig deep into the results. If a page is not near the front, they usually change the search instead of scrolling on, so a page that shows up reliably for relevant searches gets noticed again and again. A visible position also lends credibility, because people tend to treat a result near the front as a business worth a look.

Search also differs from most advertising in one important way: the person has already raised a hand. They are asking about exactly the thing you sell, which makes a search visit different from reaching someone who simply came across an advertisement. That is why search sits comfortably beside radio, television and outdoor advertising rather than replacing them; each reaches people at a different moment.

One caution is worth stating plainly. Traffic is not the same as customers. A page that attracts visitors still has to persuade them, and ranking well does not replace the selling that happens on the page, over the phone or in person.

A keyword is a word or phrase that tells people and search engines what a page is about. It is the bridge between the way you describe your business and the way customers describe their problem. Visitors skim a page for the words they just searched, as a quick way to confirm they have landed in the right place. Search engines use the same words to understand what a page covers and when to show it. A page without a clear topic gives both of them very little to work with, so give every page its own focus phrase and make sure the page really delivers on it.

Once you have chosen the phrase for a page, it should appear naturally in the places people and search engines look first:

• The page title: the name that appears on the browser tab and in search results.
• The main heading: the headline visitors read at the start of the page.
• The body copy: the text itself, written in ordinary sentences.
• The web address: a short, readable address that reflects the topic.
• Image descriptions: the alternative text attached to a picture, which also helps visitors who use screen readers.
• The meta description: the summary that can appear beneath the title in search results.
• Navigation and in-content links: the clickable words in menus and in links between pages, which tell readers and search engines what the destination covers.

Treat this as a list of places to be clear, not places to repeat yourself.

Mention the topic early, put it in the title and main heading, and then write the rest of the page the way you would explain the subject to a customer face to face. Search engines have long been able to recognize keyword stuffing, which means cramming a phrase into titles, headings, hidden text or every other sentence, and a page that does it reads badly and can be demoted. A simple test is to read the page aloud. If a sentence sounds as though it was written for a machine, rewrite it. Use only phrases that truly relate to the subject, and use them so they read naturally to an ordinary visitor.

Brainstorming keywords is trickier than it looks, because you know your own business too well. Customers often use plainer words than your industry does. Work through these prompts, and keep adding to the list as you learn more:

• List what you sell. Write down every product and service, then make each one more specific. Narrow phrases usually show more intent than broad ones.
• List the problems you solve. People often search for the problem before they know the solution has a name.
• Use their words, not yours. Describe your business as you would to a newcomer who knows nothing about it, and note the phrases they would use.
• Collect the questions. Think about what prospects ask before they buy: what it costs, how to order, what support looks like, how one option compares with another. Each question is several searches in disguise.
• Search for yourself. Type your own phrases into a search engine and see who appears and whether the results match what you would want a customer to find.
• Add place names. If you serve a local area, such as the Atlanta area, mention the cities, counties or neighborhoods the way people actually say them.
• Stay relevant. A phrase that promises more than the page delivers earns a click and a quick exit, and both are wasted.
• Stay consistent. Use the same names for your services throughout the site, so related pages support each other instead of competing.

To judge whether a phrase deserves a page of its own, look at how often people really search for it. Keyword planning tools and the reports in Google Search Console, which show the searches that already bring people to your pages, are a practical place to start. Spoken questions deserve a place on the list too; our post on voice search explains how they differ from typed ones.

A keyword list is a working document, not a one-time task. Customers' vocabulary shifts, new competitors appear, and pages that once ranked well can slip. Check which searches bring people to your site, which pages they land on and what they do next, then adjust titles, headings and copy to match. Measurement is also how you tell whether a change helped, which is the purpose of marketing analytics. The same discipline applies to the broader habits in our SEO fundamentals post.

Every point above comes back to one idea: think like the customer. Keyword research is that idea put to work, because it asks you to set aside how you would like to be described and find out what people actually type.

For a broader treatment of how a behavioral scientist approaches advertising and marketing choices, AdSense2: The Digital Revolution is Kirk Donovan's book on looking at advertising the way a behavioral scientist does; it teaches readers how to see past advertising rhetoric and win the customers their business needs. The book, and Kirk's availability to give seminars for companies and organizations, are described on the training page. To see how search fits among the agency's digital services, start with the SEO page. Further reading on search and keywords is collected in the digital marketing topic.