For many people, SEO is confusing. There’s lots of confusing terms like SERP, crawl, index, canonical tags, schema, backlinks – and if you don’t know the basics, it gets incredibly overwhelming.
Many marketing managers, small business owners and junior SEOs struggle to determine if their SEO strategies are effective and delivering results.
That’s why I created this course: to demystify SEO and make it as simple and straightforward as possible for people just like you.
Before we get into the details of what really matters in SEO, let’s get on the same page by covering the basics: what SEO is, why it’s important, what search engine results pages are, and how Google and other search engines work.
What Is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation is the process of improving your website’s visibility in search engines like Google.
In simpler terms, it’s about making your website easier to find when people search for topics related to your business.
SEO can help you attract more visitors, generate leads, and increase sales: all without heavily relying on paid ads.
Imagine you’re a local florist. If someone searches for “flower delivery in Manchester,” you’d want your website to appear near the top of the results. Since most people who search are going to click on results at the top of the page. That’s what proper SEO can do.
Why Does SEO Matter?
Your website is often the first impression your business makes. And if your site doesn’t appear on the first page of search results, potential customers may never even know that you exist.
Most people never look past the first page of Google. Which is why getting on page 1 can make all the difference for your business.
On top of that:
- You don’t have to pay per click
Unlike paid ads, SEO brings in visitors without ongoing costs. - It also builds credibility
Since people trust organic results more than ads. - And it provides long-term value
Because once your website is well optimised, it can keep driving traffic for years.
What Exactly Are SERPs?
Before we go to the technicalities, it’s important to understand what the term SERP actually means.
Put simply, SERP stands for Search Engine Results Pages – which are the pages that appear when you type a query into Google or other search engine like Yahoo! or Bing.
SERPs are the bridge that connects the user to the information they’re searching for. To understand SEO, it’s important to know their structure and the different types of results they display.
For example, when you search for something, such as “plumbers near me”, the SERP you see will likely include a combination of paid advertisements, a local map, organic listings and a people also ask section. These elements are designed to provide users with quick and relevant answers.
And this is where the battle for visibility happens.
How Do Search Engines Work?
Let’s talk a bit about how search engines like Google actually function. It all comes down to three core stages, which is crawling, indexing, and ranking.
Crawling is like the discovery phase. This is where Google sends out its little spider bots to scour the internet, going from link to link, finding new and updated content.
Once a page has been found, it moves on to the indexing stage. This is where Google tries to make sense of what the page is about. It looks at things like the content, the meta tags, and the overall structure of the page. Then it files all this information away in a massive library known as the index.
The final and most important stage is ranking. When someone types a search query into Google, it digs through its index to find the most relevant results. Then it orders these results based on hundreds of different factors, like relevance of the content, the quality of site, and more.
Our job, as an SEO, is to make sure that Google can easily find and understand our content, and to convince Google that our content deserves a top spot in the rankings.
Why Invest Your Time In This Course
I designed this course to be the simplest, most straightforward way to truly understand SEO. Every lesson has been meticulously planned to make sure you’re learning the right things in the right order, with explanations that are as clear and easy to follow as possible.
You’ll learn how to spot issues, understand what needs to be done about them, and explain the solutions clearly – even if you’re not the one implementing them.
You’ll gain insights that took me years of real-world experience to figure out. I’ve worked on everything from small businesses to massive campaigns, so I know what works, what doesn’t, and what’s a waste of time. This isn’t vague theory – it’s practical SEO knowledge from someone who’s been in the trenches for over a decade.
By the end of this course, you’ll have enough knowledge to make smart decisions, whether it’s creating the right content, targeting the right keywords, or setting realistic expectations for your efforts.