SEO has a reputation for being a dark art. It isn't. Strip away the jargon and it's a fairly sensible job: make it easy for Google to find you, understand you and trust you.
Here's how it works, in plain English, using Google's own documentation rather than anyone's sales pitch.
What does SEO stand for?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. In practice, "search engine" mostly means Google, because that's where your customers go when they need a plumber, a physio or a lawyer.
Google's own SEO Starter Guide describes it as being about helping search engines understand your content, and helping people find your site and decide whether to visit it. That's a good definition. Notice it has two halves: the search engine, and the human who has to pick you.
You'll also hear "an SEO", meaning a person or company that does the work. Same three letters, slightly more expensive.
How does SEO work?
To understand SEO, you need to know what Google does with your website. Google's guide to how Search works says it happens in three stages, and not every page makes it through all three.
1. Crawling: Google finds your pages
Google uses automated programs called crawlers to discover pages on the web. Its main crawler is called Googlebot. Google's Starter Guide says it primarily finds pages through links from other pages it has already crawled.
So if nothing links to a page, and it isn't in your site's navigation, Google may never find it. SEO makes sure the pages that matter can be found.
2. Indexing: Google works out what each page is about
Once a page is crawled, Google analyses its text, images and video, and stores what it learns in the Google index. Google is clear that indexing isn't guaranteed: not every page it processes gets indexed.
This is where a clear page about one thing beats a vague page about everything. If Google can't tell what you do and where you do it, it can't match you to a search.
3. Serving: Google picks the results
When someone searches, Google looks through its index for matching pages and returns the ones it thinks are most relevant to that search. Google says ranking is done programmatically, and that it doesn't accept payment to rank pages higher.
That's the whole game. SEO is the work of making your pages easy to crawl, easy to understand and the most useful answer to the searches your customers actually make.
The three places you can show up
When a local customer searches, the page they see usually has three places your business can appear. Good SEO goes after all three.
- The map pack. The map with a short list of businesses, driven largely by your Google Business Profile.
- The normal results. The list of websites underneath, driven by your website.
- AI answers. Google's AI Overviews at the top of some searches, plus tools like ChatGPT that people now ask for recommendations.
On the AI side, Google's page on AI features and your website says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode. In other words, the same work feeds all three. We cover the AI side in more detail on our AI SEO page.
What is included in SEO services?
"SEO services" can mean anything from a monthly report to a full team working on your site. For a local business, a proper monthly service should cover:
- Technical fixes: speed, mobile, broken pages and the behind-the-scenes problems Google trips over.
- Content: pages for each service and area you want to win, written around what your customers actually search.
- Your Google Business Profile: the right categories and services, photos and regular posts.
- Reviews: a simple way to ask happy customers, and a reply to every review.
- Links and mentions: from real local and industry websites, not link farms.
- A plain-English report: what was done, what moved, and how many calls and enquiries came in.
Notice what's not on the list: mystery link packages or a promise of first place. More on those below.
That's what every plan on our SEO services page includes. If a quote doesn't say which of these you're getting, ask. If you want to know what all that should cost, see how much SEO costs in Australia.
What's the difference between SEO and local SEO?
SEO is the whole job of getting found on Google. Local SEO is the part aimed at people nearby: the map pack, Google Maps and "near me" searches.
Google's help page on local ranking says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and explains them under three headings:
- Relevance: how well your Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.
- Distance: how far your business is from the person searching.
- Prominence: how well known your business is. Google says this includes info like how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have.
You can't move your shop closer to every customer. You can make your profile complete and accurate, earn reviews and get mentioned around the web. That's local SEO, and for most businesses that serve an area, it's where the quickest wins are.
What SEO isn't
A few things SEO is not, despite what your inbox might suggest.
It isn't paying Google
Google says it doesn't accept payment to crawl a site more often or rank it higher. Ads are a separate, paid product. SEO is about earning your place in the unpaid results.
It isn't a guarantee
Google's Starter Guide says it plainly: there are no secrets that will automatically rank your site first. Anyone guaranteeing first place is guessing with your money.
It isn't stuffing in keywords
The old trick of cramming keywords into a hidden tag is long dead. Google's Starter Guide says Google Search doesn't use the keywords meta tag.
Writing pages that genuinely help people is what's left, and it works better anyway.
It isn't buying links
Google's spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam. Sites that break those policies may rank lower or not appear at all. Cheap links are an expensive lesson.
Should you do SEO yourself or hire someone?
Some of it you can do yourself, and should. Set up your Google Business Profile properly, keep your hours and details accurate, ask happy customers for reviews and reply to every one.
The technical work, content and links take time and skill. Your time isn't free either, and a tradie writing web pages at 10pm is rarely anyone's best work.
If you do hire help, choose carefully. Google itself calls hiring an SEO a big decision, and we've written up how to choose an SEO company without getting burned.
FAQ
What does SEO stand for?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It's the work of helping search engines like Google understand your website and business, so the right people find you.
Is SEO the same as Google Ads?
No. Google Ads are paid placements. SEO earns your place in the unpaid results, and Google says it doesn't accept payment to rank pages higher.
How does SEO work for a small business?
Google finds your pages, works out what they're about and shows the most relevant ones for each search. SEO makes that easy: a clear website, a complete Google Business Profile, reviews and mentions from real websites.
Can anyone guarantee my business will rank first?
No. Google decides, and its own guide says there are no secrets that will automatically rank a site first. Treat any guarantee as a red flag.
Sources