What is SEO? A plain-English guide for business owners

How does a search engine work?

Broadly speaking, Google does three things:

• Crawling: a program visits websites and follows links to new pages.
• Indexing: Google stores what's on each page, so it can find it again later.
• Ranking: when someone searches, Google decides which pages give the best answer and in what order.

When ranking, Google looks at a huge number of signals. Nobody outside Google knows them all exactly. But the basics are clear: Google wants to help the searcher as well and as quickly as possible. A page that answers the question best, on a site that's trustworthy and easy to use, stands the best chance.

SEO meaning: the three pillars of search engine optimisation

SEO consists of three parts that need each other:

• Technology: can Google read your site properly, and does it work fast and well on mobile?
• Content: does your site contain what people search for, in the words they use?
• Authority: do others consider your site trustworthy? That shows, among other things, in links from other websites and reviews.

A site with beautiful copy but poor technology won't get far. Nor will a technically perfect site without good content. You need all three.

The visitor's experience plays a part too. If someone clicks on your page and goes straight back to Google because they can't find what they wanted, that's not a good sign. A clear page that loads quickly and answers straight away helps both your visitor and your position on Google.

Technical SEO: getting the basics right

Technical SEO is about how your site is built. Key points:

• Speed: Google measures this with the Core Web Vitals. Aim for an LCP (how quickly the main part loads) under 2.5 seconds, an INP (how quickly the page responds to a click) under 200 milliseconds and a CLS (how much the page jumps around) under 0.1.
• Mobile: Google mainly looks at the mobile version of your site.
• A secure connection via https.
• A clear structure with logical addresses and internal links.
• A sitemap, so Google can find all your pages.
• A good page title and description for each page.

Want to check this? Use our technical SEO checklist.

Content: writing for your customer and for Google

Content is what's on your site: text, photos, videos and FAQs. Good SEO content starts with the question of what your customers type in. Those are keywords. A plumber in Haarlem is more likely to be found for 'bathroom leak Haarlem' than for 'complete solutions for your sanitary needs'.

Tips for content that's easy to find:

• Create a separate page for each service, instead of putting everything on one page.
• Use your customer's words in your titles and headings.
• Answer the questions customers often ask you.
• Write clearly and concretely, with prices, process and examples where possible.
• Keep your information up to date.

How to find the right keywords is covered in keyword research. An example from our own work: for WitFix, an appliance repair company working across the Netherlands, we built pages per service area, so people searching locally find the right page. You can see the project on our work page.

Authority: why links and reviews count

Google wants to know whether your site can be trusted. A link from another website to yours works a bit like a recommendation. Links from relevant, trustworthy sites, such as a trade association or local newspaper, carry more weight than links from random sites. Never buy packages with hundreds of links: that can actually harm you.

For local businesses, your Google Business Profile and reviews matter too. They help decide whether you appear in the map with local results. Read more about that in local SEO.

DIY SEO or outsource it?

Part of SEO you can easily do yourself, such as writing good copy, keeping your Google Business Profile up to date and asking customers for a review. Technical SEO and a long-term plan need more knowledge and time.

Bear in mind that SEO takes patience. It usually takes months before you clearly see improvements on Google. On the other hand, visitors from SEO don't cost you per click, as they do with ads. That's why many businesses combine SEO for the long term with Google Ads for quick results.

Getting started yourself? Begin with these three steps. Write down the words customers use to search for your services. Check that every important service has its own page with those words in the title. And create or improve your Google Business Profile. That often achieves more than complicated tricks.

Beware of promises like 'number one within a month'. Nobody can guarantee a position on Google.

Also watch who works on your site. A web developer who doesn't take SEO into account can accidentally lose your rankings during a redesign, for example by changing page addresses without redirects.

How Violexa helps with SEO

At Violexa we build websites with the SEO basics right from the start: fast, good on mobile, with a clear structure and the right titles. That's standard in every custom website, from €1,799 excl. VAT (€2,177 incl. VAT). If you then want to keep growing on Google, we help with SEO, Google Ads and social media through online marketing, from €599 excl. VAT (€725 incl. VAT) per month. There's no minimum term: you cancel monthly, with one month's notice.

Want to know where your site stands on Google? Book a free quickscan. In 30 minutes, online or on site, we look at your site and your visibility. Afterwards you get short written advice with a price indication, with no obligations.

Frequently asked questions