Want to prevent your partner from screaming at the television when they’re favorite football team is losing?

Hide the TV remote on the second page of Google’s search results. With 75% of users never going past the first page, you’re almost guaranteed the remote won’t be found.

However, brands looking to expand their reach want—and need—to be easily found, and SEO helps them achieve this. But to boost online visibility, you need to get it right.

So, what is SEO, and how can it help drive traffic to your website? This beginner’s guide to SEO breaks down the basics in simple, actionable terms, so you can ensure your business will always be found, unlike that remote.

What Is SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the practice of optimizing your website’s content and technical aspects to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs), especially on Google. When someone searches for a product, service, or answer to a question, SEO ensures your site appears among the top results.

Search engine optimization is especially crucial for companies seeking to attract local customers, as 72% of people use Google to find local businesses.

Effective SEO helps you connect with people who are already searching for what you offer, making them more likely to convert into customers.

If you're new to SEO, our Digital Marketing FAQs blog is a great starting point for your journey.

Why SEO Matters for Business Growth

Roughly 68% of all online experiences begin with a search engine. And if your business doesn’t appear within the first few search results, chances are potential customers won’t see it.

SEO amplifies visibility and reach. It also:

Builds Trust and Credibility

Websites that appear on the first page of search results are generally perceived as more trustworthy. A strong SEO strategy helps establish domain authority, improves brand visibility, and builds user confidence.

Drives Organic, Long-Term Website Traffic

SEO delivers consistent, long-term traffic to your site without ongoing ad spend. Organic search accounts for an average of 53.3% of all website traffic, far more than any other channel.

Supports the Sales Funnel and Lead Generation

A well-optimized website aligns with every stage of the customer journey, from awareness to decision. With targeted keywords and helpful content, SEO can help guide users through your sales funnel and increase conversions.

Want to dig deeper into how content plays a vital role in SEO? Check out our blog 7 Reasons the Importance of Content Marketing Is Higher than Ever.

The Three Pillars of SEO

To fully understand SEO basics, it’s helpful to break the process into three core pillars:

On-Page SEO

This involves everything on your actual website. That includes:

• Keyword Optimization: Using the right keywords naturally in your content.
• Meta Tags: Writing compelling title tags and meta descriptions.

• Content Structure and Length: Organizing your site with headers (H1, H2, etc.) for readability and SEO. Aim for long-form content, such as blogs or eBooks. Content with over 3,000 words receives three times more traffic than average-length content.

Off-Page SEO

This refers to actions taken outside of your website that impact your rankings, such as:

• Backlinks: Getting other reputable sites to link to your content.

• Social Signals: Sharing content on social media indirectly supports your SEO efforts.

• Authority Building: Establishing your site as a trusted resource in your industry.

Technical SEO

Often overlooked, technical SEO ensures your site performs well and is easy for search engines to crawl and index. This includes:

• Site Speed: Faster sites rank better.

• Mobile Optimization: With 96% of internet users accessing the web from their mobile phones, your site must look great and function well on mobile devices.
• Crawlability: Making sure search engines can easily access and index your content.

Together, these three pillars form the foundation of an effective SEO strategy.

Beginner-Friendly SEO Tactics You Can Start Today

If you're new to SEO, you don’t need to be an expert to make impactful changes. Here are some simple yet powerful tactics you can start implementing right now:

Keyword Research Basics

Utilize tools like Google Keyword Planner or Semrush to identify keywords your target audience is searching for. Focus on long-tail keywords. These are longer, highly specific search phrases, such as “black flare jeans for women.” They may have lower search volumes, but they're more targeted and easier to rank for.

Optimizing Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Each page on your site should have a unique, keyword-rich title tag and a compelling meta description. These are often the first things users see in search results, so make them count!

Building Internal Links

Linking between pages on your site helps search engines understand your content structure. It also keeps visitors on your site longer by guiding them to related content.

Creating High-Quality Content

Search engines love valuable, original, and engaging content. Focus on answering your audience’s questions, solving their problems, and providing real value. Think long-form blog posts, how-to guides, and FAQs.

Common SEO Mistakes Beginners Make

Even with the best intentions, it’s easy to make missteps when starting your SEO journey. Some of the top pitfalls to watch out for are:

Keyword Stuffing

Using your target keywords too frequently can harm your rankings. Plus, it’s just awkward to read. Aim for natural integration and focus on writing for humans first, search engines second.

Ignoring Mobile Optimization

With most traffic now coming from mobile devices, a poor mobile experience can kill your rankings. Make sure your site is fully responsive and loads quickly on all devices.

Not Tracking Performance

Without tracking your SEO efforts, you won’t know what’s working. Leverage tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor traffic, keyword rankings, and website performance.

How SEO Fits into a Broader Marketing Strategy

SEO is most effective when it’s part of a comprehensive, integrated digital marketing strategy. Here’s how it complements other efforts:

• Content Marketing: SEO ensures your content gets found, while content keeps users engaged.

• Social Media Marketing: Sharing content on social platforms can generate backlinks and drive traffic.
• Paid Advertising: SEO drives long-term growth, while ads offer quick wins. Together, they create a balanced strategy.

And remember, SEO isn’t a one-time task. Search for website traffic evolves constantly, and so should your SEO strategy. Regular updates, content refreshes, and technical audits keep your site competitive.

At ProIQ, our modern digital marketing agency takes a thoughtful, holistic marketing approach, ensuring all these components are covered.

Always Be Found

Search engine optimization is one of the most powerful tools in digital marketing, and it’s more accessible than you might think. By starting with the basics of SEO, you can establish a solid foundation that drives traffic, builds trust, and grows your business.

SEO takes time, but it pays off in the long run. With consistent effort and a strategic approach, your website can become a high-performing asset that operates 24/7, helping you be found by customers seeking your solutions or products.

Ready to optimize your SEO strategy? Connect with ProIQ’s experts today.

Recently, it seems digital marketers have been plagued by the “SEO is dead” panic. With ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude vying to become the new search overlords, many assume they no longer need Google.

But they’re wrong. Google still dominates 90% of the search engine market.

Thanks to AI SEO tools, SEO isn’t dying. It’s evolving. And markets must adapt right alongside it.

We’ve already covered Google AI Overview and how artificial intelligence has reshaped content creation, digital advertisements, and social media. Now we’re exploring how AI is transforming search.

While we won’t be attending a funeral for SEO anytime soon, strategies that worked five years ago have become obsolete today. To stay ahead of the curve, digital markets must learn how to leverage SEO with artificial intelligence ethically and effectively, and understand which tactics will prevail as we progress deeper into the decade.

The Rise of AI-Generated SEO Content

AI and search engine optimization tools have transformed the way we obtain information.

People might search Google three or four times per day. However, AI agents work tirelessly to perform numerous searches daily. It’s search on steroids.

Data is the lifeblood of AI models. And where do they get their data? Active web search and training data, which comes from the web.

As such, the demand for discoverable online content has skyrocketed, creating immense opportunities for brands to expand their reach.

AI tools are also enabling marketers to churn out content faster than ever before. With just a few prompts, they can generate blogs, product descriptions, and landing pages that are grammatically sound and keyword-optimized.

But there’s a downside.

The internet is now flooded with AI-generated SEO content, some of which is helpful, but much of it is generic or repetitive. Search engines are taking notice.

While AI can be a powerful tool for content creation, using it without strategy or oversight can lead to thin content penalties or missed ranking opportunities.

And you don’t want that.

Google's Response to AI SEO: AI Content and E-E-A-T

With the web experiencing a deluge of AI-generated content, Google is working to connect people with the most authoritative and relevant information on the web. That’s why it’s taking a people-first approach to AI content ranking.

Enter Google E-E-A-T, or Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This set of quality guidelines evaluates the quality, credibility, and reliability of content. While not a direct ranking factor, E-E-A-T helps Google determine what content is most valuable for users.

Here’s a more in-depth breakdown of each component:

• Experience: Demonstrates the author’s firsthand knowledge or experience with the subject matter.
• Expertise: Spotlights the author’s specific skills and knowledge related to the topic.
• Authoritativeness: Reflects the author’s and brand’s reputation as a reputable source of information.
• Trustworthiness: Prioritizes reliability, honesty, and accuracy.

Google now focuses on helpfulness and quality of content, rather than solely on its origin.

What does this mean for digital marketers?

Instead of relying solely on AI, they must infuse their content with real-world insights and first-hand knowledge that demonstrates their expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

What Still Works in SEO (2025 Edition)

Despite the rise of AI, the fundamentals of good SEO remain essentially unchanged. They’ve just become more nuanced.

High-Quality, User-Focused Content

Whether written by AI or a human, content must solve real problems, answer questions, and be well-structured. Long-form content still performs well, but only when it’s engaging and offers actual value.

Topical Authority

Covering a topic in-depth is more critical than ever. Rather than one-off blogs, brands should develop content clusters around core topics. This improves both SEO and user experience.

Technical SEO

Site speed, mobile responsiveness, crawlability, and proper schema markup are still critical. Google’s Core Web Vitals updates continue to prioritize technical performance.

Internal Linking

Strategic internal links help Google understand your site structure and distribute page authority. This tactic remains underused but is highly effective.

What’s No Longer Effective

Just as some strategies continue to work, others have become outdated or even harmful. In 2025, avoid the following:

Keyword Stuffing

Over-optimizing for keywords now signals low-quality content. Google’s NLP capabilities can easily detect unnatural phrasing and manipulation.

Spinning or Duplicating Content

Repackaging the same blog post with different keywords, a common AI misuse, is a fast track to lower rankings or de-indexing.

Buying Backlinks

Low-quality backlink schemes are no longer effective in fooling Google. They often trigger manual penalties or algorithmic downgrades.

Thin AI-Only Pages

Pages that exist purely to rank, with no real value or originality, are being actively filtered out by Google's updated spam policies.

SEO Tools Using Ethically

AI-powered SEO tools have matured significantly. Used ethically, they can save time, uncover insights, and improve content performance. Here are a few of our favorites:

• SurferSEO: Help optimize content for topical depth and relevance based on competitor analysis and SERP data.
• io: Assists in building detailed content briefs and outlines aligned with user intent.
• MarketMuse: Uses AI to identify gaps in your content and improve topical authority across your site.

Importantly, these tools don’t replace human strategy. They enhance it.

Future-Proof SEO Tactics

As SEO becomes more complex, success requires a proactive mindset. Here’s how marketers can stay ahead:

Focus on Search Intent

Understanding why users search, not just what they search, will keep you aligned with future algorithm updates. This means optimizing for informational, transactional, and navigational intent across all content types.

Prioritize Human Expertise

Demonstrating real-world knowledge will always be valuable. Feature thought leaders, write from firsthand experience, and cite credible sources.

Optimize for Voice and Visual Search

As more users search using voice assistants or image-based queries, optimizing for conversational keywords and image metadata is becoming essential.

Embrace Transparency and Ethics

Whether it's disclosing AI use or publishing author bios, being transparent boosts trust, a ranking factor that Google continues to prioritize.

AI SEO Tools Aren’t Killing SEO, They’re Revolutionizing It

Yes, video killed the radio star. But AI won’t kill search. It’s fueling the demand for experienced, authoritative, and trustworthy content.

While marketers can use SEO automation tools to save time with content creation, they shouldn’t allow them to replace their own ingenuity.

Stay tuned for our next AI article, where we’ll cover AI marketing analytics and its benefits for digital marketers.

For the last several years, people have been using generative AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Claude, in much the same way they use search engines. These tools utilize sophisticated algorithms to scour the internet, identifying patterns and predicting the most logical sequence of textual output based on prior information and conversations.

Similarly, Google now utilizes AI in nearly half of its search results through a feature called AI Overviews. But what is Google AI Overview and what do they mean for your website traffic?

Here is everything digital marketers need to know.

What Is Google AI Overview?

First introduced in 2023 as the Search Generative Experience (SGE), Google AI Overview utilizes generative AI to provide concise, summarized answers on the search engine results page (SERP), typically preceding organic listings and even ads.

For example, suppose you searched the phrase “what is SEO” in Google. The AI Overview would provide a summary “answer” at the top of the search results, including:

• Google Generative Overview: A short response to queries, which users often have to click to expand.
• Key Points: Bullet points of main ideas, each linked to different websites.
• Expanded AI Search: More in-depth answers users can read by clicking “Show More.”
• Linked Overview: A list of sources related to the answer.

AI Overviews differ from featured snippets in that they synthesize data from multiple sources to provide more robust summaries rather than extracting concise information from a single website. Users can now gain a more comprehensive understanding of their search results at a glance without needing to click on multiple links.

And unlike ChatGPT, users do not have to ask follow-up questions to Google AI Overview to get the answers they need.

How Google AI Overview Impacts SEO and Visibility

Google’s constantly changing algorithms certainly keep digital marketers on their toes. However, the introduction of AI Overview has opened up a whole new can of worms.

Here’s how AI Overview could reshape digital visibility:

• Reduced Click-Through Rates (CTR): Since AI Overviews often answer user questions directly, fewer users may click on traditional organic links, especially for informational queries. Studies have found that this feature reduces clicks by 34.5%. Worse still, some users may not even click at all.
• Increased Competition for “Cited” Content: The sources included in the AI Overview summary may receive some visibility through citations. However, the competition to be featured is steep and not entirely transparent.
• Shift in Keyword Strategy: Traditional keyword targeting may no longer be sufficient. AI Overview favors content that provides deep, context-rich answers over shallow keyword stuffing.
• More Emphasis on E-E-A-T: Google's focus on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness is even more pronounced, as AI seeks out high-quality, credible sources for its responses.

It’s important to note that AI Overview is still in its early stages of development, and Google is actively working on this feature. That means AI Overview can change on a dime, making it essential for marketers to be agile and adaptable.

Pros of Google AI Overview for Marketers

Google AI Overview offers several advantages for digital marketers who are willing to adapt:

Higher Quality Traffic

If your content is cited in an AI Overview, the traffic you do receive may be more qualified. These users are likely seeking in-depth answers and may engage more meaningfully with your site.

Opportunity for Niche Dominance

Smaller businesses or niche content creators can excel if they offer unique, expert-level information that Google’s AI deems trustworthy.

Enhanced Content Strategy

Marketers now have more incentive than ever to create comprehensive, value-driven content. Long-form articles, expert insights, and original research will likely perform better in the AI era.

Improved Brand Authority

Being cited in an AI-generated answer can enhance your brand’s reputation. It signals that your site is a go-to resource for accurate, helpful information.

Cons of Google AI Overview for Marketers

In addition to opportunities, AI Overview presents unique challenges for digital marketers, including:

Loss of Organic Traffic

AI Overviews may reduce the need for users to visit your website, particularly if their question is answered directly in the overview.

Lack of Control and Transparency

There’s currently no clear way to optimize content specifically for inclusion in AI Overviews. Google has not provided detailed guidance on how citations are chosen, leaving marketers in the dark.

Reduced Visibility for Ads and Rich Results

In some cases, AI Overviews push traditional organic results and paid ads further down the page. This could lead to decreased impressions and clicks across the board.

AI Hallucinations

It’s no secret that AI makes mistakes. Google’s AI Overviews might present users with misleading or incorrect information.

What Marketers Can Do to Adapt

Adapting to Google AI Overview requires a shift in both mindset and strategy. While marketers must still follow SEO best practices, they should also take additional steps to ensure their content appears in AI Overview:

Use Conversational and Niche Keywords: Prioritize long-tail, niche phrases that your target audience is searching for.

Optimize Your Content: Create valuable, informative content that directly answers your customers’ questions. Make your content easily scannable by using clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points. Leverage schema markup to make it easier for Google to understand and categorize your content.

Enhance E-E-A-T: Showcase your company’s expertise, link to reputable sources, and include author profiles.

Understand What Hinders Rankings: Complex content, keyword stuffing, and AI-generated content can reduce your chance of being featured in AI Overview.

Can You Turn Off Google AI Overview?

Unfortunately, Google AI Overview cannot be completely turned off. However, there are some workarounds you can use to hide it:

• Install the Hide Google AI Overviews extension
• Edit Chrome’s Settings:
  • Paste chrome://settings/searchEngines in the search bar
  • Click the “Add” button by the “Site Search” update
  • Fill in the form in the new window with:
    • Name: AI Free Web
    • Shortcut: @web
    • {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&udm=14
  • You’ll see AI Free Web in the list
  • Click on the three dots and select “Make Default”

Using Google AI Overview to Your Advantage

The Google AI Overview represents a monumental shift in how users interact with search and how marketers must approach SEO. While it presents new challenges, it also opens up opportunities for those willing to adapt and evolve.

As AI continues to transform the search experience, the best strategy is not to fight against the change but to understand it, adapt to it, and utilize it to your advantage.

This blog is the first in our series of must-read articles on AI. Next week, we’ll be discussing AI content creation for digital marketing, its key ethical considerations, and how brands can leverage these tools to craft killer content.

Need help navigating the evolving SEO landscape? Contact ProIQ to discover how we can future-proof your digital marketing strategy.