SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and helps search engines understand your website’s content and connect it with users by delivering relevant, valuable results based on their search queries.
The goal of SEO is to rank on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) for the most relevant and valuable keywords to your target demographic, driving qualified traffic to your site.
SEO is considered a digital marketing practice and can be applied to any website. It helps improve a site’s visibility on search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing. Whether your site promotes products, offers services, or shares expert knowledge on a specific topic, SEO can help drive traffic and increase online visibility.
The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to be found and visited.
This introductory guide will explain in more detail what SEO is and what it entails in 2025.
Technology is constantly evolving, which means that websites – and the way they are structured – evolve. So do the devices we use to access search engines.
A web search can be voice activated and a click may be a tap on a mobile phone screen. Even the results we see from our search engine of choice may be summarized by artificial intelligence (AI).
Why is SEO important?
SEO is a critical marketing channel.
- Organic search delivers 53% of all website traffic, according to a 2019 BrightEdge study.
- More than 8.5 billion searches happen every day on Google Search and Google owns 91% of the global search engine market.
With such incredible audience reach, there’s no surprise that in turn, the global SEO industry is forecast to reach a staggering $122.11 billion by 2028.
SEO drives real business results for brands, businesses and organizations of all sizes. This is because the act of searching, or the search user interface (be it a typed, voiced or image query format) has become second nature for internet users worldwide, as the primary way to access the information sought, within the sea of billions of webpages (4.3 billion pages on the indexed web, as of September 2024).
Whenever people want to go somewhere, do something, find information, research or buy a product/service – their journey typically begins with a search.
However, search is incredibly fragmented – particularly for consumer-intent activities. Users may search on traditional web search engines (e.g., Google, Microsoft Bing), social platforms (e.g., YouTube, TikTok) or retailer websites (e.g., Amazon).
In fact, last year 56% of U.S. online shoppers started their product search on Amazon, compared to 46% who started on a search engine like Google. Also of note from that same research:
- 37% start on Walmart.
- 25% start on YouTube.
- 20% start on Facebook.
- 19% start on Instagram.
- 19% start on TikTok.
