Reference

Common SEO Questions

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Questions people ask when they’re getting started with SEO, or trying to get a straight answer on something they’ve seen contradicted elsewhere. Updated as new questions come up.

How do search engines decide what to rank?

Search engines crawl the web, index content, and score pages against hundreds of ranking signals. The main factors are relevance (does the page match the query?), authority (do other trusted sites link to it?), and experience (does it load fast, work on mobile, and satisfy user intent?). The SEO basics guide covers how all three work together.

What are the 4 types of SEO?

The four main types are on-page SEO (titles, content, internal links), off-page SEO (backlinks and authority signals from other sites), technical SEO (crawlability, site speed, structured data), and local SEO (visibility for geographically specific searches). Most SEO work involves all four to some degree, though the balance depends on the site and its goals.

What does an SEO specialist do?

An SEO specialist improves a website’s organic visibility in search engines. The role covers auditing technical infrastructure, mapping keyword intent, optimising on-page content, building link acquisition strategies, and tracking performance data. In practice, the work spans everything from fixing crawl errors to developing content frameworks that target multiple queries across a topic.

What is the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?

On-page SEO covers everything you control directly: titles, headings, content, internal links, and page structure. Off-page SEO covers signals that come from elsewhere, primarily backlinks from other domains, but also brand mentions and digital PR. On-page tells search engines what a page is about; off-page signals how much to trust it. See the on-page SEO guide and the off-page SEO guide.

What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO covers the infrastructure factors that affect how search engines crawl, index, and render a website. This includes Core Web Vitals, site speed, mobile usability, structured data, canonical tags, robots.txt, and JavaScript rendering. When technical issues exist, even strong content may not rank. The technical SEO guide covers each area in detail.

What is E-E-A-T?

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is a framework Google uses in its quality rater guidelines to assess whether a page genuinely serves the user. It shapes many ranking signals, including author credentials, original research, citations, and the depth of coverage on a topic. The on-page SEO guide covers how to signal E-E-A-T effectively.

How long does SEO take to show results?

For a new site with no existing authority, meaningful organic traffic typically takes 6 to 12 months. Established domains targeting less competitive terms can see movement in weeks. The timeline depends on domain age, current technical health, content quality, competitive pressure, and how consistently SEO work is maintained. Quick wins from fixing technical issues are possible early; compounding growth comes later.

Can I do SEO myself?

For most small to medium sites, yes. The fundamentals are learnable: setting up Google Search Console, writing clear title tags, building internal links, and earning a handful of good backlinks covers the majority of the work. Technical SEO gets more complex at scale, and competitive industries may need dedicated resource, but a motivated person can make meaningful progress without hiring an agency.

Is SEO difficult to learn?

The basics are not hard. Understanding search intent, writing good title tags, and getting a few relevant links is straightforward. The difficulty comes from the breadth of the discipline — technical, content, and authority-building all interact — and from keeping up with an environment that changes regularly. Most practitioners learn by doing: pick a site, apply the fundamentals, and build from there.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of identifying the queries your target audience uses in search, then mapping those queries to content that matches their intent. It goes beyond search volume to examine intent (informational, navigational, transactional), competitive difficulty, and how topics cluster together. The keyword research guide covers intent mapping, topic clusters, and how to prioritise targets.

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is the practice of optimising a business’s online presence for geographically specific searches, such as “plumber near me” or “accountant in Bristol”. The most important asset is a well-managed Google Business Profile, followed by consistent citations, review signals, and location-specific page content. The local SEO guide covers each element in detail.

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines treat backlinks as votes of trust: a link from an authoritative, relevant site signals that your content is credible. Not all backlinks carry equal weight. A link from a high-authority, topically relevant source is worth far more than one from a low-quality directory. The off-page SEO guide covers link acquisition strategies and what makes a backlink valuable.

AI Overviews and generative answer engines are changing how content gets surfaced. Users increasingly receive synthesised answers rather than a list of blue links, which means brands need to be cited sources as well as ranked pages. This emerging discipline is called Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). The AI search guide covers how to adapt.

Will AI replace SEO?

No, but it is changing what the work involves. AI is reshaping search surfaces: more queries are answered directly by AI Overviews or tools like ChatGPT without a click. That shifts the goal from ranking in position one to being cited in a synthesised answer. The signals that earn those citations are the same as the ones that earn traditional rankings: accuracy, clear structure, credible authorship, and genuine depth. The underlying skills remain; the measurement and some of the tactics are shifting.