One of the main goals of companies investing in Digital Marketing is to secure top positions in search engine results, gain recognition, and attract new clients. However, making your website stand out among the millions on the internet seems overwhelmingly complex. But nothing is impossible—SEO emerged years ago to prove it.

SEO is the foundation of any successful digital marketing campaign, since it boosts visibility on search engines, benefiting both websites and social media profiles. Not only is it one of the earliest digital marketing strategies to emerge, but it’s also among those that have evolved the most to adapt to new trends and user needs.

Keep reading to learn more about SEO, how it works, and the benefits it can bring to your projects!

Definition of SEO and Its Importance in Digital Marketing

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a set of techniques and tools designed to optimize different types of web pages and sites. This helps search engines, such as Google, to read and understand them more easily and quickly, determining which queries they address and the value they provide to users.

By doing so, SEO enhances a website’s visibility in search engines, increasing the likelihood that it appears among search results for specific keywords and related terms.

However, as a digital marketing strategy, SEO goes beyond simply ranking in search engines—it also aims to drive conversions. Therefore, optimizations are not solely targeted at search engines. In fact, optimizing pages for users is an SEO cornerstone.

In this way, SEO can be used to strengthen a brand’s digital presence by improving its relevance, authority, and exposure within its industry. Additionally, since these efforts are carried out organically (i.e., without paid promotion), SEO offers an ideal balance between cost and benefits.

History and Evolution of SEO

As mentioned, SEO is one of the earliest digital marketing strategies ever implemented, and also one of those that has undergone the most significant changes—especially in recent years.

To better understand how search engine optimization works, let’s take a look at how SEO has evolved from its origins to the present day.

The Early Days of SEO: The Rise of Keywords

Saying that SEO emerged at the dawn of digital marketing doesn’t mean we’re looking too far back. While it now feels indispensable, the reality is that SEO appeared roughly 30 years ago. After all, the first search engines came into existence in the early 1990s, and Google didn’t launch until 1996.

As you might imagine, search engines quickly became a sensation, creating a unique opportunity for marketing campaigns. However, there was a key challenge: how could one attract traffic to a website?

The solution emerged almost by chance when some content creators realized they could manipulate search results with surprising ease. Specifically, they achieved this by repeating the target keyword for which they wanted a page to rank countless times, a strategy known as “keyword stuffing”. This alone was enough to secure a top position.

This worked because, in the beginning, search engines relied solely on keywords to locate the information users were searching for. However, as search engines evolved, they began to consider hundreds of different factors when ranking a website.

Google, in particular, has undergone thousands of updates, many of which even the most up-to-date SEO professionals may not fully grasp. Given Google’s monopoly over online search, understanding its ranking criteria is essential to developing high-quality digital marketing campaigns.

Google Algorithm Updates: Their Impact on SEO

SEO, with all its techniques and complexities, truly began with Google and the evolution of its algorithm—specifically, the formulas it uses to determine which pages rank in search results and in what order.

Broadly speaking, Google implements two types of changes to its algorithm:

• Google Updates: These are minor optimizations designed to tweak specific aspects of the algorithm, improving its performance in targeted areas. Typically, these updates don’t noticeably impact search results unless high-quality SEO practices aren’t being implemented.
• Google Core Updates: These are comprehensive updates to the entire algorithm, significantly affecting a site’s ranking on search results pages. In other words, while Google Updates are more targeted, Core Updates broadly redefine how Google processes and evaluates information.

Google Updates are frequent, and Google often doesn’t notify users when they occur. Nonetheless, Core Updates tend to be notified. So, let’s focus on some of the most significant Core Updates and how they influenced SEO practices:

Panda 🐼

Launched in 2011, Panda was Google’s first major algorithm update. With Panda, websites began to be evaluated based on the quality of their content. Original pages that provided value to users were rewarded, while sites with duplicate content saw their rankings drop. User interaction also became a major ranking factor.

Penguin 🐧

In 2012, black and white remained in vogue with the introduction of Penguin, Google’s second major algorithm update. This update focused on the health of a website’s link-building practices. Simply put, Google Penguin ensured that external links pointing to a page were natural and of high quality.

Before Penguin, the sheer number of external links a site had was enough to boost its ranking. After Penguin, websites relying on link farms or dubious link sources suffered significant ranking penalties. In other words, the authority of the linking site and the relevance of the link to the page page began to be considered of greater importance. 

Hummingbird 🪶

In 2013, content began to be ranked based on semantic factors and user interest. With Google Hummingbird, the interpretation of content expanded to include variations of keywords and related terms. This Core Update completely transformed how the algorithm processed information and, most importantly, search queries.

User intent, for instance, started to carry some weight, although it still didn’t surpass the importance of the exact typed term. However, optimizing content for long-tail keywords became crucial for improving a website’s ranking and visibility on search results pages.

Pigeon 🕊️

With the rise of business pages on the web, Google introduced a new algorithm variable in 2014: Google Pigeon. This update marked the growing importance of local SEO.

As a result, a user’s geographical location began to influence the organization of search results. Online reviews and the integration of Google Maps for local searches also became factors in determining page rankings. This firmly established local SEO as an essential component of digital marketing strategies.

Mobilegeddon 📳

The mobile device boom in 2015 prompted Google to adapt. That year, Google began rewarding mobile-friendly pages—those with responsive designs and optimized loading speeds for mobile users—by improving their rankings.

Conversely, websites that didn’t adapt were severely penalized, experiencing significant drops in their rankings—clear evidence that Google was taking a firm stance. It was, in essence, an Armageddon for desktop websites.

RankBrain 🧠

Also in 2015, Google introduced one of the most transformative changes to its algorithm: RankBrain. This update shifted the algorithm’s focus to prioritizing user search intent when delivering results.

RankBrain enabled Google to process unfamiliar queries by relating them to existing ones, ensuring users always received relevant answers. To achieve this, the update incorporated machine learning into the algorithm. SEO practices subsequently began focusing more on addressing user needs and intent rather than simply ranking for specific keywords.

Fred 🤠

In 2017, the Fred Core Update targeted low-quality websites and cases of Black Hat SEO—dishonest practices aimed at manipulating search rankings.

As a result, many sites that knowingly or unknowingly employed Black Hat SEO were penalized. Not only did they lose ranking positions, but in extreme cases, some were entirely removed from Google’s index.

Mobile-first Index 📱

By 2018, mobile searches were poised to surpass desktop searches. In response, Google adjusted its ranking system to prioritize a website’s mobile version over its desktop version.

Websites that weren’t optimized for mobile searches saw their rankings decline. Key areas affected by this shift included page speed, design, and accessibility, which became critical considerations for effective SEO practices.

E.A.T / E.E.A.T 🍽️

In 2019, Google introduced three new ranking factors to evaluate content quality and ensure it provided real value to users:

• Experience: The author’s experience with the subject.
• Authoritativeness: The authority of the content.
• Trustworthiness: The credibility of the information.

To succeed, content creators needed to:

• Demonstrate the author’s expertise.
• Link to reputable sources.
• Foster user trust by including contact information and verified content.

In 2022, Google added another “E” to the acronym, for Expertise. This update meant that Google began prioritizing content written by recognized experts or incorporating specialized insights when determining rankings.

BERT and Core Web Vitals 💻

Two Core Updates aimed at making Google’s algorithm function more like the human brain were BERT (2019) and Core Web Vitals (2021).

With BERT, the algorithm began processing queries as entire sentences rather than word by word, enabling it to deliver more accurate results. Meanwhile, Core Web Vitals focused on user experience, incorporating metrics like LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), and FID (First Input Delay).

Helpful Content Update 💡

One of Google’s most significant algorithm updates in recent years was the Helpful Content Update of 2022. With this Core Update, the genuine value a page offers users became a central factor in web positioning.

Content production shifted toward addressing users’ specific needs while offering well-written, practical information. The E.E.A.T principles gained renewed importance, along with the inclusion of interactive elements, FAQs, and user-centric data.

Beyond 2022

Since 2022, Google has continued implementing Core Updates aligned with these priorities—favoring relevant, informative content designed to address precise search intents.

Interested in learning more? Check out our guide to the main Google Core Updates for further insights!

Modern SEO: A Focus on User Experience

SEO is no longer what it once was. Google’s various updates have shaped and refined it in response to evolving search practices, aiming to improve the precision and quality of its service—or so they claim.

Today, Google prioritizes websites that publish relevant, fresh, and updated content for users. Search engine optimization is no longer solely about catering to search engines but also about addressing user needs directly.

Modern SEO begins with understanding search intent to determine what content can best meet users’ needs—in other words, what will be most relevant to them. Broadly speaking, there are different types of queries: informational, academic, transactional, and others. To address these effectively, content must be clear, concise, and, most importantly, useful to users.

Another key focus of modern SEO is improving user experience (UX) and ensuring content accessibility. For instance, the growing trend of voice search optimization highlights the importance of adapting to user preferences. Similarly, websites with fast loading speeds, stable designs, and guaranteed security tend to rank higher in search results.

Creating featured snippets—those concise answers appearing in the “zero position” of search results—has become a widely adopted SEO practice. The use of rich and structured data to provide precise information with minimal effort from the user is also becoming increasingly common.

On the other hand, advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are expected to lead to new Google updates, offering 100% personalized results. AI could play a significant role in evaluating content quality and its ability to meet the intent behind a search, enabling even greater precision in ranking and relevance.

In short, modern SEO is centered on crafting valuable, user-oriented content and providing seamless experiences—keeping pace with the ever-evolving digital landscape.

How does SEO Work?

Imagine you’re in a library, looking for a chocolate cake recipe. You ask the librarian, who searches through an index for books categorized as “cookbooks” or “dessert recipe books” until they find several options for you. The librarian then retrieves the books and lets you choose the one that best addresses your needs.

This process mirrors how SEO and search engines work. However, in the case of SEO, you have to do much of the groundwork to make it easier for the “librarian” (the search engine) to find a specific book.  That is, to ensure their content is indexed and ranked effectively

So, for a webpage to rank in search results, it must be optimized so that search engines can find it, read its content, and evaluate it. But first, it has to appear in the search engine’s index. This can be done manually or by waiting for the search engine to crawl and index it automatically.

Once the page is in the index, it will be ranked based on factors such as its content, relevance, authority, and the search intents it addresses, among others. When a user enters a query related to the page’s topic, the search engine’s algorithm (think of it as the librarian’s brain) scans the index to find the pages that best answer the query.

The rest is history—or almost. One key difference is that over 200 factors influence a page’s ranking in search results. While you already know some of the most critical elements for modern SEO, here are a few additional ranking factors that search engine algorithms consider when determining a site’s quality and relevance:

• Site Authority. It is determined by the number and quality of backlinks a site receives, mentions of the brand, and adherence to E.E.A.T. principles (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
• User Behavior. It includes metrics such as the number of clicks a page receives and the amount of time visitors spend on it.
• Content Freshness. It signals that a page is up-to-date, as search engines recognize fresh content as higher quality.
• Meta Tags and Structured Data. Optimized meta titles and descriptions, enriched with keywords, as well as structured data schemas, help improve a site’s ranking.
• Technical Site Optimization. It includes proper indexing, the use of canonical tags, and a well-organized sitemap, among other elements.
• Authentic Content. Content created by humans is key. Modern algorithms can detect AI-generated content, and if it doesn’t provide real value to users or is not thoroughly reviewed, it may face penalties.

By optimizing for these factors, you’ll ensure your page is more accessible to the search engine’s algorithm (the “librarian”) and better positioned to meet user needs by being featured in search results.

Types of SEO: On-page, Off-page, Technical, and More

The short answer to whether there’s only one type of SEO is no. Not one, not two, not three—and there’s no single way to classify them. For instance, if we consider whether the factors being optimized are internal or external to a website, SEO can be divided into two main categories: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.

On the other hand, when focusing on the specific industry or niche where SEO is applied, the variations multiply. Let’s take a closer look at each type of SEO and how it influences website optimization.

On-page SEO: The Essentials

Also known as On-site SEO, this type of SEO encompasses everything a website administrator can optimize within their pages to enhance user experience and make the site easier for search engines to read.

On-page SEO focuses on relevance. In other words, it ensures that a website is optimized to clearly communicate its purpose and demonstrate the quality of its content to search engines. 

Besides, by aligning with user needs, optimized content not only enhances visibility but also drives conversions. To achieve this, On-page SEO often improves user experience (UX) by using structured text (short paragraphs, bold text, etc.), visual elements, and interactive components.

On the other hand, quality content also fosters trust among users, improving key interaction signals like click-through rates (CTR) and dwell time, which ultimately benefit the website’s ranking.

Typically, On-page SEO strategies target the following components:

1. Keywords. Optimized pages include relevant terms naturally integrated into the content. These keywords appear not just in the text but also in meta tags, alt tags, and file names, helping search engines understand the page’s purpose more effectively.
2. HTML Elements. Properly structured headings (H1, H2, etc.) help organize content hierarchically, making it easier for both users and search engines to navigate. Informative and compelling meta descriptions, enriched with keywords, also improve search rankings.

By focusing on these areas, On-page SEO ensures a website is not only search-engine-friendly but also aligned with user expectations, ultimately driving visibility, engagement, and conversions.

SEO Off-page: The Relevance of Backlinks and Authority

Now it’s time to discuss the other side of website optimization: Off-page SEO.

While On-page SEO and technical SEO involve direct changes to the page or website, Off-page SEO focuses on actions outside the website that improve its rankings.

These actions include building external links and brand mentions that drive traffic to your site and enhance its authority. Therefore, typically in Off-page SEO the decision to provide backlinks or mention your brand is up to a third party.

What is in our control is implementing an Off-page SEO strategy that increases the chances of these actions happening. So, in essence, Off-page SEO revolves around external factors that affect the website’s performance. 

More specifically, backlinks (or external links) act as “votes of confidence,” where other websites signal to search engines that the content on your site is of high quality and worth linking to.

However, as you may have read, due to updates in Google’s algorithm, the number of backlinks is no longer as important as where those links come from. For instance, a backlink to MD from an online gambling platform doesn’t carry the same weight as one from a highly relevant source, such as another digital marketing agency’s website.

On the other hand, brand mentions do not directly influence a website’s ranking. Instead, it’s through the traffic they generate and the brand searches they provoke that search engines associate your site with a higher level of authority. As we’ve seen, this often leads to improved rankings.

Technical SEO: Site Speed and Accessibility

Unlike On-page SEO and Off-page SEO, Technical SEO does not focus on a page’s relevance and authority. Instead, it deals with factors that help search engines crawl and index a site, as well as ensuring users can navigate it smoothly.

Primarily, Technical SEO optimizes the internal structure of the site, including its architecture and the code it uses. Some key aspects of Technical SEO include:

• Google Indexing. Ensuring that a website is indexed by Google allows search engines to access its pages.
• Page Load Speed. Who stays on a page waiting for more than 5 seconds for it to load? Both search engines and users penalize sites with slow load times. Therefore, maintaining good load speed can improve a site’s ranking and visibility.
• Optimized URLs. Ideally, URLs should be short, descriptive, and include keywords to make them easier to read for both users and search engines. It is also recommended that they reflect how a page relates to others (e.g., if it is a subcategory) to simplify navigation.
• Website Security. Using HTTPS is necessary to comply with today’s security standards. In addition to building user trust, having or lacking an SSL certificate also functions as a ranking factor.
• User Experience (UX). The structure of the site and certain design elements, such as having a mobile version, are part of Technical SEO. For example, using internal links that maintain a logical hierarchy facilitates navigation. This can generate positive user interaction signals and simplify site crawling.

Local SEO: Geolocated Ranking

With the introduction of the Pigeon algorithm in 2014, local queries gained a new level of importance. For these types of searches, Google activates its local search algorithm, prioritizing results based on the user’s location. For instance, if someone searches for “Italian restaurant,” the top search results will be for restaurants nearby, to better address the user’s potential needs.

This makes it necessary to optimize websites to rank for these kinds of queries. It’s no longer enough to rely on traditional SEO techniques; more specific tools and knowledge are now required.

Search engines determined that local searches are best answered with concrete, practical data rather than pages filled with links. As a result, local search results differ from general search results pages (or SERPs).

A local SEO strategy primarily focuses on the following aspects:

• Local Keywords: Keywords used in a local SEO strategy should cover search intents that include, among other things:
  • The user’s location at the time of the search or the region entered in the search.
  • Terms that identify your business.
  • Modifiers of industry-related terms.
  • Geographical modifiers.
• Google My Business: The main ranking factor in local SEO is Google My Business. In fact, local search results often pull data from this tool, making it essential to have your business registered on this platform.
  
• Reviews: Genuine, positive reviews are a significant advantage for ranking in local searches and acquiring new customers. Including keywords and structured data (such as reviews) helps ensure these optimizations are highly relevant.
  

E-commerce-SEO: Online Stores’ Optimization

Another specific type of SEO is the one applied to e-commerce sites to improve the visibility of their offerings by working on their organic ranking. Over time, this can lead to new customers conversion, boosting your projects.

Some of the elements typically optimized to enhance the performance and presence of online stores include:

• Product Pages: Titles should be descriptive and include relevant keywords for your customers. The more detailed and original the descriptions, the better—always avoiding duplicate content. It’s also important to include high-quality images and videos optimized with alt tags that contain relevant keywords.
  
• Product Categories: It’s recommended to include optimized texts that describe the products within each category. The site should also be organized logically and hierarchically. Creating Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) lists is also a common (and profitable) practice in e-commerce SEO.
  
• Structured Data: This data will appear in search engine results when someone conducts local or branded searches. Therefore, it’s essential to include all the information users may need, such as business hours, address, billing methods, reviews, and prices… The possibilities are endless!
  

Medical SEO: Specialized Strategies for Clinics and Healthcare Professionals

Health-related websites often have different requirements compared to e-commerce sites or general information pages. This is partly because they must comply with specific regulations, as medical information often has a direct impact on people’s lives.

These regulations can be national, as well as federal. Additionally, Google has specific guidelines for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) sites, which include health-related websites. A good medical SEO strategy must follow these guidelines thoroughly.

As a general rule, SEO benefits when it goes beyond the limits of Google’s algorithm. However, healthcare SEO is the exception that proves this rule. Not only because manipulating users’ health is highly illegal, but also because the penalties can be severe.

The specifics of medical SEO stem from its focus on establishing the site’s authority and building user trust. Therefore, it is crucial to include only high-quality content with verifiable references—in other words, content that meets E.E.A.T. standards.

As a clinic gains recognition online, its brand authority grows, which in turn increases the trust placed in it. In this regard, SEO is a key tool as it boosts site visibility. This often leads to higher user interaction and, simultaneously, strengthens authority.

Affiliate Marketing: SEO Niches

The areas in which SEO can make a difference don’t end there. Through affiliate marketing, in particular, it significantly expands its fields of application.

Affiliate marketing SEO consists of attracting quality traffic to pages that promote a product or service and generating conversions. Since each industry has its specific needs, the optimization approach must be tailored to them, to maximize effectiveness.

It generally involves four key strategies: (a) identifying niche-specific keywords, (b) determining the ideal content format for each industry, (c) creating engaging and useful content (i.e., that addresses a particular need), and (d) working on UX.

For example, SEO focused on selling products may revolve around reviews and comparisons. SEO for hotels (within affiliate marketing) will have a similar approach to local SEO and include seasonal keywords such as “summer” and “season.”

Similarly, SEO for lawyers may include local keywords and Google My Business profiles. Creating a blog with informative articles that address legal questions or publishing a guide are also strategies to follow.

Affiliate marketing for restaurants, on the other hand, can implement SEO through reviews or restaurant guides. Additionally, in this niche, local SEO is also valuable for reaching potential customers through the web.

SEO Tools: Key Resources in Ranking

Search engine optimization is not based on intuition, but rather on metrics and reports. Having the right tools will help automate key processes for a better, more accurate, SEO strategy, such as:

• Conducting SEO audits to detect errors and opportunities for improvement.
• Researching profitable keywords, specific to your industry.
• Analyzing the competition to understand where to focus your efforts and how to build your unique identity.
• Finding opportunities for both external and internal links for your website.
• Tracking your site’s traffic and engagement metrics.
• Mapping your search engine presence over time.

… among other functions that, in today’s highly competitive online environment, require the speed and precision that these resources offer. So, some life-saving tools you should be familiar with before starting an SEO campaign include:

• Google Search Console. This is a free platform for webmasters. In SEO, it is used to monitor your site’s performance on Google and identify and resolve technical issues, especially related to indexing. It integrates with most digital marketing tools to share data and expand analysis possibilities.
• Google Analytics. Also a free tool, it analyzes your website’s traffic. Some of its functions include segmenting audiences by location, device, and channels used, as well as tracking conversion and performance metrics. This allows you to understand how users interact with different pages and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.
• SEMRush. A paid digital marketing platform, SEMRush offers detailed analysis, site audits, AI-powered content creators, and weekly reports, among other features to evaluate and optimize your projects. In SEO, it is mainly used for strategy design, competitive analysis, and identifying areas of opportunity.

Tools similar to SEMRush include AhRefs and SE Ranking. Do you know any others? Feel free to share in the comments! On the other hand, choosing among them can be somewhat complex, especially if you are new to SEO. Would you like to see a detailed comparison of these platforms? If so, leave us a comment.

• Metricool. This tool is designed to analyze and manage social media. It helps you monitor the performance of your campaigns on social networks and estimate their impact on organic traffic. This way, you can discover optimization areas and better manage your shared content.
• Screaming Frog. This web crawling software is incredibly useful for auditing sites and identifying indexing and positioning issues. It allows you to automatically discover broken links, duplicate content, and structural problems. Additionally, it can be used to create XML sitemaps.

SEO Benefits for Your Business

Reaching the top pages of search results is no small feat. While websites ranked below the top 10 on Google receive only a few visits, the click-through rates for sites in the top positions range from 3.11% to 9.28%.

It may seem low, but it’s not. Never forget that when we talk about search engines, we’re talking about billions of users who begin their web experience there. In fact, 92.96% of web traffic in 2018 started with a search engine. Having an optimized online presence is essential to capitalize on this trend.

While SEO doesn’t deliver immediate results, its long-term focus aligns with the latest algorithms, which require quality and a deep understanding of your target audience. Its adaptability across different channels and formats makes it ideal for any digital marketing campaign aiming for success on the web.

In summary, a good SEO implementation brings substantial benefits to your site. Specifically:

• It multiplies your visibility and conversions by increasing your organic traffic within a specific niche. Additionally, it sets you apart from the competition, strengthening your authority through brand building.
• It improves your website, not just for search engines, but also for users, by enhancing their browsing experience.
• It optimizes your investment since SEO is a long-term strategy (websites in the top 10 on Google often have over two years of presence) and its benefits do not strictly depend on how much was invested in this strategy, unlike other web marketing strategies
• It boosts your impact on social media, especially when campaigns are coordinated with keywords and shared links. Having a website enhances the presence of your social media profiles, driving traffic to them and improving their authority, and vice versa.

How Can I Improve My Website’s SEO?

One of the most effective ways to successfully optimize a website is by hiring a quality SEO agency. However, if you’d prefer to give it a try yourself, let us share some practical strategies you can implement to optimize your site.

Let us know in the comments how it worked out for you!

Content Optimization and Keyword Usage

In the early days of SEO, content was optimized exclusively for search engines. Of course, as we’ve seen, that’s no longer the case—today, we also write for the user.

Mainly, when optimizing the content of a webpage, it’s crucial to highlight its main topic—specifically, the keyword you want to rank for. 

Keep in mind that search engine algorithms index content to uncover clues about the type of information on a website. Therefore, you should also emphasize related topics that not only drive traffic to your page but also provide valuable information to your users.

That said, not just any keyword will help you achieve a strong position in search results. To see success, you’ll need to use the same terms your potential customers search for when looking for the topics you’re addressing.

Tools like SEMRush, SE Ranking, and AhRefs are excellent for identifying these keywords. Depending on your subscription plan, they can even provide personalized suggestions tailored to your site. Another option is to analyze your competitors and see which keywords they’re ranking for.

When writing, it’s also a good practice to use headings and subheadings with H1 and H2 tags. These help clarify the hierarchy and structure of your content, making it easier for algorithms to understand how your text is organized.

A well-structured layout provides essential clues about the information on your site, simplifying the search engine’s task.

Lastly, don’t forget to add or improve meta descriptions or meta tags. These provide additional information about your page’s content—brief descriptions displayed below the URL and page title in search results.

The Importance of User Experience (UX)

Beyond producing relevant and well-structured content, user experience can be enhanced by improving your website’s navigability.

A site with intuitive navigation, fast loading speeds, and responsive design helps retain users. After all, when you don’t have to resize the screen or wait several minutes for icons to appear, you’re less likely to leave a page quickly.

This sends positive signals about your site’s quality to search engines, helping to improve its position in the SERPs. Just as importantly, it aids in converting users into customers.

Optimizations of this nature often require programming expertise. If you want a more detailed guide on how to implement them, check out our article on the relationship between UX and web design.

However, other adjustments you can make to ensure your website offers a great user experience—without needing specialized knowledge—include:

• Evaluating your site’s loading speed using tools like PageSpeed Insights.
• Using CSS frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation to create responsive designs that adapt to various screen sizes.
• Including high-quality images on your site, ideally optimized for fast loading and easily adaptable to mobile screens.
• Ensuring your site has a logical structure with visible menus and clickable buttons.
• For larger sites, adding an HTML sitemap can simplify navigation for your visitors.

Link Building: Off-Page SEO in Action

As mentioned earlier, backlinks (external links) signal to Google that your site is a reliable source on a given topic. This improves its authority and, consequently, the ranking of your pages in search results.

Google’s algorithm values the number of links a page receives—but only if they’re high quality. The more quality links a page receives, the greater its authority becomes.

Keep in mind that quality backlinks come from sites related to your field of expertise and, ideally, with a high domain rating. The links should integrate “naturally” into the context of the page and use consistent anchor text. Moreover, it’s better if they don’t always come from the same site. This provides search engines with stronger evidence of your authority.

Backlinks also create a network of links directing users to your pages. An increase in visits boosts your rankings while simultaneously raising your brand’s visibility and creating opportunities to convert those visits into new customers.

Want to learn how to develop a link-building strategy from start to finish? Check out our step-by-step guide on link building. If you have specific questions, leave a comment—we’d be happy to answer!

Conclusion: SEO as a Continuous Strategy

In a world where screens often take precedence over reality, SEO has become an essential tool for attracting new clients. Put simply, it’s the A-B-C of digital marketing.

Creating optimized content that satisfies search intent, prioritizes user experience and accessibility, and stays aligned with algorithm updates will help you establish your site’s authority and relevance. In turn, this will improve its position on search engine results pages, bringing more potential clients to your site. The rest is history.

However SEO is a long-term strategy requiring constant analysis and adjustments to deliver consistent results. After all, Google’s algorithm changes are constant, and for a site to succeed, it must evolve with them.

This demands significant time and resources, making it challenging to develop an effective SEO campaign without them. What’s the solution? Partnering with an SEO agency that delivers results and prioritizes quality above all else.

At MD Marketing Digital, we’re a web marketing agency focused on driving the comprehensive growth of each project. Our goal is to deliver high-quality services that cover all aspects of your online presence.

We know that in online marketing, content is king, and every successful journey starts with a search. After all, wasn’t that how you found us?

We create unique proposals that highlight our clients’ strengths and open new opportunities for improvement. Tell us how we can help elevate your project or contact us for an initial audit.

Search engines keep evolving—and you? Reach the next level with MD.