Short answer
SEO (search engine optimization) is the part of digital marketing that earns unpaid visibility in search: on Google, on Google Maps and, increasingly, in AI answers. It works by making a website technically sound, relevant to what people search for and trusted by other sites, so that buyers find the business at the moment they are looking.
SEO sits alongside paid search, social media and email. Paid ads stop when the budget stops. SEO builds an asset that keeps bringing visitors, which is why most businesses run both: paid for immediate demand, SEO for compounding growth.
It has four main parts:
- Technical SEO: crawling, indexing, speed and site structure.
- On-page SEO: content, titles, headings and internal links.
- Off-page SEO: links, mentions and reviews from other sites.
- Local SEO: Google Business Profile and local rankings on Maps.