What is SEO and how does it work?
Questions and Answers Semantic SEO Series by

What is SEO and how does it work?

This post kicks off a series of posts that I started planning recently and decided to put into practice right away. I've grouped together a series of questions that I've been asked and that I see repeatedly asked, and decided to answer them from my point of view and from the perspective of SEO .

I'm going to write 4 posts, listed below, all based on these questions, grouped by topic. Today's post will answer the question I get asked most often: " What is SEO and how does it work ? "

The next posts will be:

What is SEO for a company?

How does SEO work and what are the advantages of having one?

In my 10 years working with SEO, I've been in many companies. Some large, some small, some startups, but in all of them one thing remains the same: the strategic role of SEO.

Optimization is more than just a collection of techniques, spreadsheets full of recommendations, or a program that tracks the results of improvements to your website . It's a strategic business be closely aligned with your organization's objectives.

So, to answer the question clearly:

For your company, an SEO specialist is a strategic partner who will help your business solve problems, find solutions, and evaluate opportunities.

What is SEO strategy?

As I mentioned before, SEO is primarily strategic. Therefore, an SEO strategy is part of your business's overall marketing , focusing on improving everything that needs to be accessible via search engines.

We, SEO professionals online so they are better indexed and categorized, increasing their chances of being ranked.

How can I use SEO on my website?

The best way to do this is to hire a professional. You can hire an independent consultant, or have an in-house SEO analyst working with your marketing department.

Regardless of the work model, SEO will go through several phases:

  • Analysis of the current state of your website;
  • Competitive analysis;
  • Research the best terms to use;
  • Strategic planning for implementing improvements;
  • Regular monitoring of results.

This cycle continues indefinitely because, just as your company is optimizing, so is your competition. Therefore, the best way to use SEO on your website is to enlist the help of a professional.

What can be done to improve the website?

As I mentioned earlier, if you really want to implement an SEO strategy, hire a professional, but some things can be done, even if only to prove that optimization works.

  • Host your website on a good server ;
  • Use modern platforms to build your website;
  • Create only pages related to your business and services.
  • Creating a blog is a great plus .

If you want more tips, read the posts here on the site.

How can I improve the SEO of my WordPress website?

I'll give you just one piece of advice: read my post " SEO Checklist for WordPress " and congratulations: WordPress is one of the best platforms to use for a website.

What is the most important and indispensable element of a website for increasing conversion rates?

You're on the website of an SEO consultant who advocates for and loves working with optimization, but the answer to that question is only one: User Experience

Optimization will consistently bring the best audience to your website, but to convert that visit you will need (in addition to good products and services, obviously) for your visitor to have the best possible experience when accessing your site.

UX ( user experience ) is one of the fastest-growing professions in the digital market. When working in conjunction with SEO, user experience professionals create pages that delight, inform, and are true conversion machines.

I speak from personal experience: in all the projects I've done, where I had the support of a good UX professional or a designer with that expertise , the conversion results exceeded expectations.

What is website optimization?

Website optimization, or SEO, is a strategic approach, both practical and theoretical, dedicated to helping search engines understand the content of all types of websites, index, categorize, and rank these projects.

What are the two types of approaches that need to be worked on in SEO?

A few years ago, I would have said On-Page and Off-Page. On-page refers to improvements directly on the page: code improvements, content , internal links, loading speed, and other technical characteristics related to the website itself.

Off-page marketing is linked to strategies such as link building, content marketing, brand building, and so on.

But in my opinion, things have changed. Not that on-page and off-page elements aren't important anymore, but they may no longer be issues to be resolved during website development (in the case of on-page elements) or outsourced to press offices and specialized branding agencies, for example.

If you use WordPress to create your website, you'll already have the on-page foundation sorted. If the project is well done, it will be optimized when it's launched.

So, to answer your question:

If you don't use a platform, focus on on-page optimization. It will give you the foundation you need.

If you use a good platform, focus on two things: content creation and semantic optimization .

What is the difference between a CEO and an SEO?

This question was asked on purpose as a joke: the correct acronym for optimization is SEO (essi / ii / ouo). Many people outside the digital market have difficulty pronouncing it and, on top of that, confuse it with CEO.

CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer .

What is an SEO professional?

An SEO professional is an expert in techniques for optimizing websites for search . They are responsible for analyzing your business (and its platforms) and creating strategies to achieve the business's objectives in terms of acquiring an audience through search engines.

What is the salary of an SEO specialist?

That depends a lot, and there's no easy answer. The markets where SEO operates are extremely diverse, involving companies of all sizes, and there are many ways to work with it.

But I can tell you one thing: if you're a good SEO analyst, you won't be out of work, because the market continues to grow.

What is an SEO analyst?

An SEO analyst is one of the members of an optimization team. They are responsible for analysis , report creation, research, and optimization recommendations.

So, is it clear now how SEO works?

This is the first post in a series I'm writing answering questions about this incredible market that is SEO. I'll be writing 3 more posts. I hope you enjoyed " What is SEO and how does it work?" and that you'll like the others as well.

Alexander Rodrigues Silva

Hello, I'm Alexander Rodrigues Silva, SEO specialist and author of the book "Semantic SEO: Semantic Workflow". I've worked in the digital world for over two decades, focusing on website optimization since 2009. My choices have led me to delve into the intersection between user experience and content marketing strategies, always with a focus on increasing organic traffic in the long term. My research and specialization focus on Semantic SEO, where I investigate and apply semantics and connected data to website optimization. It's a fascinating field that allows me to combine my background in advertising with library science. In my second degree, in Library and Information Science, I seek to expand my knowledge in Indexing, Classification, and Categorization of Information, seeing an intrinsic connection and great application of these concepts to SEO work. I have been researching and connecting Library Science tools (such as Domain Analysis, Controlled Vocabulary, Taxonomies, and Ontologies) with new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and Large-Scale Language Models (LLMs), exploring everything from Knowledge Graphs to the role of autonomous agents. In my role as an SEO consultant, I seek to bring a new perspective to optimization, integrating a long-term vision, content engineering, and the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence. For me, SEO work is a strategy that needs to be aligned with your business objectives, but it requires a deep understanding of how search engines work and an ability to understand search results.

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