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LEARN SEO / THE BASICS
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It is the work of making your website easier for search engines to find and understand, while helping visitors find useful answers, products or services.
I judge the work by the problem it solves: can the right customer discover the page, understand the offer and take the next useful step?
Himanshu Swaraj
Practical SEO guidance
18 years in search marketing
Investigation, implementation and review
SEO IN PLAIN LANGUAGE
SEO focuses on unpaid search visibility. You improve the website and its information rather than pay the search engine for an organic position.
The work can include fixing access problems, improving service descriptions, organising product pages and making important information easier to find.
Paid search buys advertising placements. SEO works on organic visibility. A business can use both, but the costs, reporting and work involved are different.
SEO still takes time and resources. Unpaid placement does not mean the work itself is free.
Explore paid search separatelyHOW SEARCH WORKS
A published page does not automatically appear in search. A simple way to understand the process is to separate three questions.
01 / CRAWLING
Search engines discover URLs through links and other sources, then request pages and resources. Access problems can prevent them from seeing important content.
02 / INDEXING
A search engine processes the page and may include it in its index. Crawling a URL does not guarantee it will be indexed.
03 / SERVING RESULTS
The search engine selects and orders results for a particular query. An indexed page is not guaranteed a position or appearance.
THE MAIN PARTS
A site may need several of these areas, but they are not eight tasks to apply equally to every page. I start by finding the gap.
Remove barriers to access, indexing and usability. For example, investigate a broken page, a blocked resource or an important page that cannot be reached through links.
Learn technical SEOMake a page’s purpose clear through its title, headings, content and useful details. Explain the actual service or product rather than repeat a phrase unnaturally.
Learn on-page SEOUnderstand what people want from a search, group related needs and choose suitable pages. A price comparison needs a different answer from an installation guide.
Understand search intentHelp visitors and crawlers move between relevant pages. Link a service page to useful explanations and related services using clear, descriptive link text.
Learn internal linkingDescribe supported information in a machine-readable format that matches the visible page. It is not a substitute for useful content or a guarantee of a special search appearance.
Understand structured dataMake useful work and reliable business information available to people who may reference it. Avoid treating every link as equally valuable or buying links to manipulate rankings.
Explore link-building supportKeep local business details, service information and relevant website pages accurate. Make the contact or booking route clear for people looking in the areas you serve. For conflicting records across local listings, see my citation and business-details management.
Explore local SEOReview search queries, landing pages and relevant enquiries or sales. A change in traffic means more when you know which pages and customer actions changed.
Explore measurementA SIMPLE EXAMPLE
A vague page saying “quality plumbing solutions” may not answer the customer’s immediate questions. Which repairs are covered? Where does the business work? How can someone get help?
I would check those gaps alongside page access and the contact route. The point is to make the page useful for the service people need, then measure relevant enquiries.
Separate emergency repair intent from installation research or a general how-to question.
State the repairs, coverage and useful details the business can confirm.
Make sure the page can be reached, loads usefully and has a clear mobile contact path.
Check relevant queries, visits and genuine enquiries after the agreed changes.
MEASURE WHAT MATTERS
A page can rank for a phrase that brings the wrong visitors. More visits can also arrive without more useful enquiries. I look at the search, the landing page and what happens next.
Useful checks include whether important pages are indexed, which searches show them, which pages receive visits and whether people complete the actions the business needs.
Connect visibility with measurementQUESTIONS TO ASK IN A REVIEW
Are the searches relevant?Check whether the queries match the customers and services you want.
Are visitors reaching the right page?Review the landing page against what the searcher needed.
Are useful actions being recorded?Separate real enquiries or sales from page views and incidental clicks.
WHERE TO START
Pick a page that matters to the business and identify the customer need it should answer.
Check whether the title, service details, evidence and next step are clear and accurate.
Review broken links, mobile usability and indexing information. Treat each tool result as a clue to investigate.
Note what you changed and review relevant search and enquiry data over an appropriate period.
COMMON MISTAKES
Write naturally around the need. Forced repetition does not make an unclear page useful.
Decide what each page is for and how it connects to the rest of the site before adding more content.
Use tools to investigate a specific question. Prioritise the issue by its impact, not just by the colour of a score.
SEO AND AI SEARCH
For Google’s AI search features, Google says the existing SEO fundamentals still apply. Its guidance does not call for a special AI schema or separate AI text file.
I would keep the focus on accessible pages, useful information and accurate business facts. A mention in an AI answer, a citation and a website visit are different observations and should be measured separately.
KEEP LEARNING
SEO IN PRACTICE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I have 18 years in search marketing. My work covers investigation, planning and implementation across search visibility, content, paid campaigns and measurement.
I use this guide to explain the basics in the same order I approach a business problem: understand the need, find the gaps, do the useful work and review what changed.
Meet HimanshuQUESTIONS
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It covers work that helps search engines find and understand pages and helps people reach useful information through unpaid search results.
No. SEO focuses on organic visibility. Paid search purchases advertising placements. Both can be useful, but they involve different work and reporting.
You can handle many basics yourself, including improving page clarity, fixing broken links and making useful internal connections. An independent SEO expert can help with complex indexing, migration or technical problems.
The review period depends on the change, the website and the search environment. A completed fix can be checked separately from its later search impact. Agree the work and review points rather than rely on a fixed ranking deadline.
Use the language customers use, but keep it natural and relevant. Repeating a keyword does not replace a useful page that answers the right need.
The main areas include technical access, on-page clarity, content and search intent, internal linking, structured data, relevant references, local information and measurement. The priorities depend on the problem.
Tools provide findings to investigate. You still need to check the cause, the business impact and the right solution before treating every flag as a priority.
No. You can improve your website and information, but you cannot control every search result, competitor or customer decision.
Google says its existing SEO fundamentals apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode. Other AI experiences need their own assessment; a search ranking and an AI mention are different observations.
An audit is useful when important pages are hard to find, enquiries are weak or you have many possible fixes and need to decide what matters first. I review the scope before proposing the work.
FURTHER READING
For the search fundamentals covered here, see Google’s SEO Starter Guide. The AI section links to its separate guidance on AI features.
APPLY THE BASICS
Share your website and the problem. I’ll help identify what needs investigating before the work begins.
