What Is SEO and How Is It Done? The Complete Guide

What Is SEO?

2026 has many new developments in store for all of us in SEO. Although no one knows whether the leaps in artificial intelligence will take the industry in a good or bad direction, it is clear that many changes are at the door. So are you ready for these changes in terms of SEO strategy? Let’s look at some of the main topics together.

SEO is an abbreviation formed from the initials of “Search Engine Optimization”. SEO refers to the set of techniques, strategies and processes used to help websites or digital content appear in better positions in search engines. Its core aim is to help websites attract more organic visitors.

It means increasing your website’s visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing and other search engines when people search for your products, the services you offer or the topics where you have deep expertise and experience.

The better your pages appear in search results, the more likely they are to be discovered and clicked. In short, the aim of search engine optimisation is to attract visitors to a website and help build an audience of visitors who come back as customers.

How Is SEO Different From SEM and PPC?

SEM and PPC are two other common terms you will often read and hear in the marketing community. SEM stands for “Search Engine Marketing”. PPC stands for “Pay Per Click”.

Keep reading to learn more and to find out how these terms relate to SEO.

The Difference Between SEO and SEM

SEM means “Search Engine Marketing”, or, as it is known more briefly, search marketing.

According to an article on Search Engine Land, the world-famous site about search engine optimisation, SEM is an umbrella term covering the combination of SEO and PPC activities that aim to attract traffic through organic search and paid search.

In Turkey, however, SEM is generally used as the name for paid work and SEO for unpaid work. But when we look at these concepts in depth, Search Engine Land’s point of view is not entirely wrong, because new sites now have to advertise to be noticed faster by Google, and people have long been spending money on backlinks to raise their search rankings and domain authority. Setting aside the debate over which covers which, it is quite clear that in today’s world a website needs all of these.

SEO Compared With PPC

PPC means pay per click, a type of digital marketing in which advertisers are charged when someone clicks one of their ads.

Basically, advertisers bid on specific keywords or phrases for which they want their ads to appear in search engine results. When a user searches for one of these keywords or phrases, the advertiser’s ad will appear among the top results.

As mentioned earlier, the terms SEM and PPC are often used interchangeably within the industry. According to Search Engine Land, however, that is not the case.

Why Is SEO Important?

SEO is a critical marketing channel. First and most importantly: organic search makes up 53% of all website traffic.

This is a big reason why the global SEO industry is expected to grow rapidly to reach 122 billion dollars by 2028. SEO delivers real business results for brands, businesses and organisations of every size.

When people want to go somewhere, do something, find information, research something or buy a product or service, they usually start their journey with a search.

Today, however, search is incredibly fragmented. Users can search on traditional web search engines (for example, Google, Microsoft Bing), on social platforms (for example, YouTube, TikTok) or on retail sites (for example, Amazon).

Trillions of searches are made every year. Search is a source of traffic for websites, so it is important to be “search engine friendly” on any platform where people might search for your brand or business. You can also click here to go to the piece we wrote on Local SEO.

All of this means that increasing your visibility and ranking in better search positions than your competitors can have a positive effect on your business.

Another reason SEO is critical for brands and businesses: unlike other marketing channels, good SEO work is sustainable. When a paid campaign ends, so does the traffic. Social media traffic is unreliable at best.

SEO is the foundation of holistic marketing, a channel where everything your company does matters. Once you understand what your users want, you need to fully integrate that knowledge into your company’s:

Campaigns (paid and organic)
Website content
Social media properties

SEO is a channel that brings in the traffic you need to achieve your key business goals (such as conversions, visits and sales). It also builds trust: a website that ranks well is usually seen as authoritative or trustworthy, and these are the key qualities Google wants to reward with better rankings. You can follow my Medium account, where I share articles on Google updates and SEO, here.

What Are the Types of SEO?

Now that we have explained the concept of SEO and the related concepts of SEM and PPC, we can look in more detail at how search engine optimisation is done.

There are three types of SEO:

Technical SEO: Optimising the technical aspects of a website.
On-site SEO: Optimising the content on a website for users and search engines.
Off-site SEO: Creating brand assets (people, brands, values, vision, slogans, catchphrases, colours) and ultimately opening up ways to increase brand awareness and recognition (that is, demonstrating and growing expertise, authority and trustworthiness).

With content and technical optimisation, you have 100% control. That is not the case with off-site SEO: you cannot control links from other sites, and changes such as algorithm updates are not in your control. But all of these are parts of one whole.

Imagine SEO as a football team. To win, you need a strong defence, a good midfield and a clinical attack. You can think of technical optimisation as the defence, on-site optimisation as the midfield and off-site optimisation as the attack.

Technical Optimisation

Optimising the technical aspects of a website is a critical, fundamental step for SEO success.

It all starts with architecture. A website is built so that search engines can discover its pages by following links and using sitemaps. Search engines are guided by creating the .htaccess file and robots files.

You want to make it easy for search engines to discover and access the content of your pages (that is, text, images, videos). The technical elements that matter in technical optimisation are URL structure, navigation, internal links and more.

Experience is considered a critical element of technical optimisation. Search engines emphasise the importance of pages that load fast and offer a good user experience. In technical SEO, Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness and usability, and building secure sites with SSL certificates are key points.

Another area of technical optimisation is structured data (that is, schema). Adding this code to your website can help search engines understand your content better and increase your visibility in search results.

Content Optimisation

Optimising content in SEO means it has to be optimised for two main audiences: people and search engines. This means you optimise the content your audience sees (the actual content on the page) and the content search engines see (the code).

The goal is always to publish useful, high-quality content. That requires understanding your audience’s wants and needs, and combining data with the guidance Google provides.

When optimising content for people, you should pay attention to the following:

It should cover relevant topics you have experience or expertise in.
It should include the keywords people might use to find the content.
It should be unique or original.
It should be well written and free of grammar and spelling mistakes.
It should contain up-to-date and accurate information.
It should include a variety of media (for example, images, videos).
It should be readable; it should be structured to make it easy for people to understand the information you share (subheadings, paragraph length, use of bold/italics, ordered/unordered lists, reading level and so on).

Some of the content elements that matter when optimising content for search engines are:

Meta tags
Meta descriptions
Heading tags (H1–H6)
Image alt text
Open Graph and Twitter Cards metadata

Off-Site Optimisation

Off-site optimisation is not just about getting backlinks. With recent updates, being shared on social media and where a site’s traffic comes from have become much more important for search engine bots and measurement tools. This may involve a far more detailed, multi-point equation than you think; even someone searching for you by typing your name directly into a search engine is a signal for the search engine.

Link building (backlinks) is the activity most associated with off-site SEO. The benefits of getting many high-quality links to your website from authoritative, trustworthy websites can be rankings and traffic. Link quality matters more than link quantity, and the aim is a large number of quality links.

So how do you get these links? There are website promotion methods that create synergy with SEO efforts. These include:

Brand building and brand marketing: Techniques aimed at increasing recognition and reputation.
PR: Public relations techniques aimed at earning editorially given links.
Content marketing: Some of the popular forms are video creation, e-books, research studies, podcasts (or being a guest on other podcasts) and guest authorship (or guest blogging).
Social media marketing and optimisation: Put your brand name forward on all relevant platforms and share fully optimised, relevant content.
Ratings and reviews: Getting reviews and staying in touch with customers is very important data for search engines.

Everything your brand does matters. You want your brand to be present everywhere people might search for you. That is why managing all your digital assets should be treated as a whole. To follow the content I produce on managing digital assets, you can connect with me on LinkedIn here.

How Does SEO Work?

SEO is a complex process in which search engines crawl your website, index it and then associate those pages with specific keywords. This lets search engines provide the most relevant results when users search online. Here is how SEO basically works:

Keyword Research: The first step is to identify the target keywords. Keywords describe what your website or content is about for your target audience. Keyword research is done to find out whether these keywords are competitive and which keywords would be better to target.
Content Creation: Useful content that matches the chosen keywords is created. Content should help users find the information and solutions they are looking for. It can include text, images, videos or other types of media.
Technical Optimisation: The necessary steps are taken to optimise the website’s technical structure. This can include technical improvements such as increasing site speed, making the site mobile-friendly, organising the URL structure and creating sitemaps.
On-Site Optimisation: Key SEO elements such as content, title tags, meta descriptions and canonical tags are reviewed and optimised.
Link Building: Work is done to earn links from high-quality, relevant websites. These links can increase your website’s authority and improve its rankings.
Monitoring and Analysis: Analytics tools are used to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the work. This includes tracking visitor traffic, conversions, rankings and other important metrics.
Continuous Improvement: The SEO strategy is continuously revised and improved. Research, analysis and monitoring competitors keep SEO sustainable.

How Do You Learn SEO?

There are several ways to learn SEO. Here are some steps you can follow to start learning SEO:

Online Resources: There are many free sources of information on the internet. You can use resources such as blogs, guides, forums and YouTube videos.
Books: Many books have been written about search engine optimisation. These books can help you learn the basic concepts and gain more in-depth knowledge.
Online Training: Online courses and training programmes are an excellent way to start learning. There are many platforms offering specialised courses, certificates and training programmes.
Practical Experience: The best learning comes through practice. By building a website and applying your strategies, you can gain real-world experience.
Trial and Error on the Internet: As in many fields, trying things and making mistakes is very important in this one too. You can start learning by launching your own projects and monitoring the results.
On-the-Job Training: If you work at a digital marketing agency or in an SEO-focused job, training on the job is also an effective way to learn.

At the start, learning the key concepts that form the foundation of SEO is a good way to understand the basics. Then you can develop your SEO skills by starting to apply this basic knowledge and gaining practical experience. Remember that SEO is a constantly changing field, so it is important to keep learning and stay up to date. The most important English-language sources you can turn to in this field are Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal.