A person holding a phone in one hand points to a screen with a stylus in the other hand. The screen displays SEO analytics including a pie chart and a graph.

What is SEO and Why is it Important?

Jan 18, 2025

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

In the modern age creating and maintaining a strong online presence is crucial to succeed. The internet has become the high streets, leaflets, and newspapers of the past. One of the most effective ways of establishing a dominant digital presence is through Seach Engine Optimisation (SEO).

But what exactly is SEO, and why is it so important to a business in this day and age? In this blog post we will take a dive into the world of SEO, exploring it’s importance and examine the two main foundations that make it work. We will also look into the impact of AI on current search and SEO and provide tips on how best to use SEO to drive traffic to your website and create quality leads.

What is SEO?

SEO stand for Search Engine Optimisation. It is the process of fine tuning your website to rank higher in search engine pages (known as SERPs) – particularly for specific words (keywords) or phrases (long tailed keywords). The techniques used to achieve this tend to include a combination of keyword research intelligent content creation, link building and technical optimisation.
Google's logo is displayed on a browser window along with it's search bar as an opening image for a blog post on what is seo and why is seo important

93% of online experiences begin with a search engine

Why is SEO Important?

SEO is important for a number of reasons:

Increasing Visibility and Improving Search Rankings

When you optimise your website for search engines you can improve where your website appears for specific keywords and phrases. This improvement in rankings will then increase your visibility online. The more people seeing your website the better chance you have of attracting new customers.

A joke for you: “The best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of google”. A little morbid but it does have a point, websites that do not rank well are not seen.

75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results

A laptop is open ion a desk next ot a green coffee mug, with books and a picture frame in the backgrouind. The laptop screen displays a search bar with 'Keywords' written on it alongside 'content', 'marketing, 'SEO', 'SEM', 'online', 'words' and 'campaign'.

Driving Traffic to Your Site

When your visibility and rankings are improved SEO can drive more traffic to your website. The greater the number of site visitors, the greater the chances of you converting them into customers. Did you know that organic search accounts for 53% of all website traffic? (Source: BrightEdge)

Demonstrating Trustworthiness

Through a strong SEO strategy, you can demonstrate trustworthiness to your customers (as well as showing yourself as an authority to search engines). When your website is optimised for search engines it shows that your are invested in providing a great user experience (UX). It also demonstrates that you are willing to put effort into ensuring you present a visible and accessible site.
Diagram of coloured blocks representing a website and its backlinks for SEO purposes. The blocks it on a plain background and have a chain link symbol on them. The two blocks in the center are red and those connected are cream coloured.

70% of consumers trust recommendations from other customers more than they trust advertising

Creating A Better Customer Experience

There is a fallacy spread about SEO that it is entirely separate or even negatively effects a customer’s user experience. However SEO can actually help your website provide relevant and useful content, which in turn helps provide a better customer experience.

The Two Foundations Of SEO

There are two types of SEO that are built up from, thus they are the foundations: onsite SEO and offsite SEO.

Onsite SEO

Onsite SEO is the process of optimising the elements of your website. Thus the term on-site, the work is done ON your site. We could write entire essays on each of the factors involved in onsite SEO, but to stop brain melt we’ve only briefly described them for you. These include:

Page Speed

A seemingly basic concept, however in SEO terms page speed and its optimisation can be a complex process. Page speed is a critical factor in SEO, significantly impacting not only UX but your rankings too. The faster your page loads the better.

A 1 second delay in a page can result in a 7% reduction in conversions

GRaphic showing googles pagespeed score at 100, with the number in a green circle. The image represents the importance of page speed when considering search engine optimisation

Keywords

When it comes to keywords and SEO keyword research is king, it tends to be the starting block for all onsite SEO. Keyword research is the process whereby you identify keywords and phrases that your target customers are actually using to search for your products or services.
SEO experts will also look at the number of keyword searches, their demographics, trends and competition for said words. From here SEO can continue, for example there is no point is working on a web page that you are trying to rank for “Fix my shoulder pain” when actually people are searching for “Shoulder pain remedies”.

Content

Content refers to what you actually create on your website in terms of the specific text and media. Creating high quality relevant content is an absolutely crucial part of onsite SEO. It goes beyond web pages and can include blog posts, articles, product descriptions etc.

Meta Descriptions and SEO Titles

These things are part of a website that you can specifically add to ‘help’ search engines understand the page, blog post, article, etc. They are also the short descriptions and titles that appear on search engine’s results pages. They should not only be optimised for your specific keywords but also descriptive and attention grabbing.

Image Alt Attributes

Every image or video on a website is capable of having alternative text (alt text), which is designed to help users with visual impairments understand the content of the media. Nowadays search engines use this information to do the same. Choosing appropriate alt text for your images with your keywords in mind can make the difference between a page ranking well or badly.

Schema and Local SEO

As with Image Alt Attributes, we are in a lesser-known area of SEO with schemas. Web schemas (AKA schema markup or structured data) add additional standardised context and meaning to your site which is understood by search engines. Common types include articles, reviews, events, products, and people.

An example of schema markup code titles and their descriptions from Schema.org pertaining to the use of schema and markup text in an search engine optimmisation strategy
Schemas are an important tool for improving search engine rankings, especially when looking at local SEO. If you are looking to rank higher in a certain area then schema is your friend, the ‘LocalBusiness’ schema even includes your address or map position.

Off-Site SEO

Off-site SEO refers to optimising your website’s presence using other websites. Thus the phrase Offsite – ‘off (your) site’. These include:

Backlinks and Domain Authority

Backlinks are links from other websites to your own. Search engines will not only see the number of links coming into your site but also assess their ‘quality’, context, and relevance. Domain Authority (DA) is a measure of these sites’ trustworthiness and credibility. In basic terms, if you have a lot of links coming into your website from different (and relevant) high DA sites then your rankings will improve.

Social Media

Many Businesses underplay the importance of social media in their off-site SEO strategy. However social media can help drive traffic to your website and increase its visibility and credibility with potential customers. Think of social media as the wide net that you can cast to bring the fish to your boat.

The Impact Of AI on Search and SEO

The rise of artificial intelligence is having a huge impact on SEO. One of the most noticeable effects is the increasing importance of voice search. With many people now using AI assistants such as Siri, Gemini, and Alexa more and more people are using voice search to find what they are looking for online. Ai assistants tend to aggregate search results to provide an ‘answer’ and then list only the top three sites it considers the most relevant online.

For SEO this means that quality, relevant web pages are more important than ever and keywords are progressing into key questions that a site can then answer. To optimise for voice search content needs to be conversational, natural, and optimised for longer tail keywords. This can include providing solutions and offering advice.
A person holding a phone in one hand points to a screen with a stylus in the other hand. The screen displays SEO analytics including a pie chart and a graph.

50% of all searches will be voice searches in 2025

Conclusions About SEO

To conclude SEO is a crucial aspect of website design and digital marketing that can help businesses increase their online visibility, drive traffic and create quality leads and conversions. By understanding the two foundations of SEO- onsite and off-site whilst optimising for the future of search with AI businesses can improve their online game.
For SEO this means that quality, relevant web pages are more important than ever and keywords are progressing into key questions that a site can then answer. To optimise for voice search content needs to be conversational, natural, and optimised for longer tail keywords. This can include providing solutions and offering advice.
Seo Strategy Prioritisation Graphic with seo tasks around a circle based on their level of effort vs level of immediate impact

How Can I Improve My SEO Right Now?

Here are some hints and tips for you:
  • Regularly check your site speed and employ best practices to improve it as much as possible.
  • Conduct regular keyword research to identify target keywords, phrases, and questions.
  • Create high-quality and relevant content that your customers will find useful, optimising it for your chosen keywords.
  • Optimise the website for search engines, including appropriate use of meta descriptions, SEO titles, alt tags, and internal links.
  • Regularly build high-quality backlinks from websites that have a high level of domain authority.
  • Create a social media strategy to drive traffic to your website and create a greater online presence
  • Optimise your site for voice search using conversational natural and problem-solving content.

We Are Here To Help Your SEO

SEO is one of the tools we use at Thanks Tom Web Design to help businesses thrive online, improving their online presence, driving traffic, and creating quality leads.

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