The essential SEO tutorial for thriving at the age of the AI-controlled search

You want to get to know each other via search engine optimization (SEO), but where do you start? We were all SEO beginners once.

We will treat the basic SEO vocabulary, check a step-by-step-seo tutorial to start your strategy and flow into deep immersion in the AI. In the meantime I will show tips from Drift Kings Media SEO Pro Victor Pan And SEOFOMO newsletter founder Aleyda Solís.

Let us immerse yourself.

Table of contents

SEO bases

To understand where we are going, we first look back a brief review. The traditional SEO playbook focuses on the alignment on keywords, climbing search rankings, climbing and converting this traffic into leads or sales. That’s how it works.

Knowing keywords

Understanding the basic SEO vocabulary is important. Let us immerse yourself in some important terms:

• Search engine optimization Optimizes your website to offer high quality information search. Good SEO also helps you to rank higher in the search results for certain key words. That brings you to a larger audience.
• On-page-Seeo Improves the search ranking. On-page elements contain key words that are used in their content or back-end elements such as site structure.
• Off-page SEO Focuses on actions that improve your search engine rankings outside your website, e.g. B. Backlinks from other websites.
• Link building Contains the achievement of your content on other high -quality websites. This creates authority and credibility.
• Serps (Search engine results) are the result page that you see when carrying out a search on Google or another search engine.
• White Hut SEO The tactics correspond to the accepted and recognized best practice. If you follow these tactics, your website ranks.
• Black-Hat SEO Passes the good cowboy against bad cowboy metaphor. This tactic manipulates search engine algorithms to classify websites in SERPS over unethical means.
• Eeat stands for experience, expertise, authority and trust. It is part of Google’s Search guidelines for Rater -rater -rater And one of the factors that Google uses to determine the relevance and authority of a page.
• Keywords If sentences are users in a search engine to find content.
• Keyword research Includes the search for search terms that refer to your company to inform your website pages and content.
• Organic/organic results are any results in SERP that are unpaid and appear for the search query due to the relevance of a page.
• Organic traffic is the traffic that comes from organic results.
• Ranking factors Are elements that affect the search results, like their page authorities.
• A search intention Why does a user carry out a search.

1. Content SEO: Write a great content.

My tip number one for content SEO is simple: Write really good content. Experienced SEO strategists know what people are looking for and have really helpful content to meet these requirements. A bad contribution that is filled with keywords does not force people to stick to it.

2. Technical SEO: Improve the technical elements of your website.

Even the best content on the Internet will not get any readers if Google cannot find it. That is why technical SEO is important. The goal here is to set a strong technical basis so that Google and other search engines can find and crawl without any problems so that they are displayed in the search results.

Technical SEO can appear complicated if you don’t have much technical experience. Don’t try to do everything at once. A good CMS – like Drift Kings Media – takes care of the technical aspects so that you don’t have to. Go to the technical SEO with our technical SEO guidelines.

3. Share and backlinks: Make sure that users find your website.

Because their content is great, people want to share it. Congratulations! Now let’s talk about how you can build these backlinks.

Victor Pan from Drift Kings Media says you wonder to ask yourself. “Why Do people want to share what they have created? “

He identifies three simple answers to this question:

• “First, you are super local, so it is very relevant. You may even be the only person who talks about it.”
• “Two, you can have data or a perspective that can only share your website due to the access you have”, as the original research or other proprietary data.
• And finally “their content triggers an emotional reaction.”

Pro tip: Do not waste any money to buy backlinks. Google has clearly explained that “nobody can buy a better pagerank.” Since links to Pagerank contribute, the purchase of backlinks is ineffective and the risks of punishments.

We have complete instructions for backlinking if you are ready to try it.

4. Keep an eye on the AI.

Sundar Pichai, the CEO from GoogleCalls an AI-controlled search “The next chapter of the search” and he believes that it stays here to stay. How does the search trend change now?

Remember the following: If someone has a problem, they may contact Chatgpt to get answers. If your brand is discovered there, you can get to know your products or services in this session – without visiting your website!

The total value of the AI search-based discovery also increases. A single visitor who arrives through a AI-powered search platform 4.4 -times more valuable As one of conventional organic search.

So if someone ends up on your website after you have explored your brand via chatt or similar platforms, you are already well informed and much more likely that you will convert.

Today you don’t just want to increase traffic to your website. They also have to appear prominently on AI-driven platforms.

You can learn more about generative engine optimization (GEO) to stay on the cutting edge.

5. Optimize for Aios.

Google’s AI overviews are now part of the search experience. If you enter a query, an AI-generated answer with helpful links appears. When they appear in Aios, the people of their brand and their services are exposed to. This is also true if seekers don’t click through.

If your brand has a long history and a high SEO ranking, you will probably already be quoted and benefit from from Aios. But if you are new in the room, you have to adapt your strategy.

I recommend concentrating on longtail keywords that are related to their offer. There will be less competition for these questions, so that they are rather cited in the AIO. In addition, your keywords deal with a certain pain point that is bound to your offer.

The people looking for this long sentence already need what they sell. So you are prepared to appear in front of potential buyers.

6. Understand vector

Vector room models help to show search engines more precisely and more relevant results.

Imagine every website or document as a point in a huge diagram. This diagram has many dimensions, and each dimension represents a different word (such as “SEO”, “content” or “ranking”).

If two websites use similar words, the points they represent are close together. If you use very different words, the points are further apart.

By measuring the distance between these points, search engines can find out which pages are more similar to each other and which are most relevant for the one for which someone was looking for. This approach improves search accuracy and provides users more relevant results.

As a result, it becomes less effective. Data and context are more important.

Search engine journal Calls this layer -emantic drift. If you notice a decline in the search traffic, this can be because the vector of your content no longer matches the developing vector of the search intention of the user. If you understand how vectors work, you can remain relevant.

How to learn SEO

Learning SEO is a big task, and because the best practices of SEO change over time, international SEO consultant Aleyda Solís “It is very advisable that you do not go to a single source.” Therefore on your own side, Learningseo.ioIt has put together guides and information from many different resources.

Solís offers this professional tip: “See what works for you in us your Context “, because even if the information is correct,” it may not be right for your circumstances. “

Here are some options for how you can do it.

1. Reading and watching reliable resources.

There are many educational resources for reading and watching that help you build your knowledge of SEO. Here are some of my recommendations.

Google still has a little more than 90% of the search market worldwide. So add his Find a central blog And Search guidelines for Rater -rater -rater on your list.

AI-powered search engines are a rapidly growing segment of the search landscape. So if you want to see how AI perceives your website and your brand, take Drift Kings Media’s AI search grader Tool for a spin (it’s pretty cool).

2. Take free courses.

If you benefit from the structured and guided learning, a SEO course is another option to build on your SEO skills. A bonus is that many courses offer certificates after completion. These are some high -quality options:

3. Stay on the trends.

Especially with the advent of the AI-powered search, the SEO changes and sometimes develops every day. Algorithms are updated, new trends surface and consumer behavior are changing.

For example, in December 2022, Google added an E for experience to the old EAT guidelines. Experience ensures that content has been helpful, relevant and created by someone who has experience in the present topic. (And it is an important distinguishing feature between computers and humans, since with AI-generated content there is a robot foot in the door.)

One of the most important factors to become an SEO expert is to keep the trends up to date so that they can turn when large industrial shifts occur. We treat changes in the SEO landscape in the Drift Kings Media blog, and Google also has entertaining A current list of the most important updates This can affect your SEO success.

4. Know how AI works.

Artificial intelligence deformed SEO and how content is discovered. So I recommend staying on AI trends and knowing how search algorithms change in the answer.

Personally, I find Semrush’s content valuable. Her 2025 AI research was particularly interesting. (Did you know, for example, that 89% of the information cited by Chatgpt came from sources that are 21 or lower?)

Search engine journal Was another critical resource when I navigated through the shift.

5. Study your competitors.

Learning from your competitors is a great way to understand the keys for your success.

Pan suggests viewing websites that cut well and see on which other sides you link so that you “create content” not only a single content that you create, but the entire journey that a user goes through. “Its content should cover a natural progress of topics.

You can carry out a competitive analysis to uncover new keywords in which competitors receive backlinks (also called incoming links) and other new opportunities for capitalization.

Selected resource: Our free Competition analysis templates Help to carry out a thorough analysis of competitors in your niche, and this step-by-step instructions lead you through the use of the template for a SEO competition analysis.

6. Learn through.

I have always found that I learned best. So I recommend tracking an experimental approach to the process.

If you already have a website, you can carry out a competitive analysis and update your current strategy based on your findings. If you don’t have a website, you should create one, implement your new SEO knowledge and monitor key figures.

One of the best things about SEO is that a variety of tools are available to help you on every step of the way.

7. Use SEO tools.

In view of the width and depth of the Internet, it would be a nightmare to fulfill some of the essential SEO functions by hand -here SEO tools come into play to save the day. They saved me a lot of time and energy and quickly brought me the results I was looking for.

Here is a list of tools that I recommend:

• SEO marketing software from Drift Kings Media Offers SEO recommendations to improve your website, to optimize page content and measure ROI.
• AI search graderAnother hubspot tool analyzes how visible your brand is for AI search engines.
• Our Website Grader Evaluates your website based on factors such as mobile friendliness and SEO optimization.
• Google’s search console You can help you measure your site traffic and fix SEO performance problems.
• Google Analytics Helps you see important metrics in order to understand your SEO efforts such as the measure of non-organic traffic organic and non-organic traffic.
• Ahrefs is a favorite of HubSpot blogger. It helps you to carry out keyword research and to follow important statistics such as search volume and CTR.
• jasper is a AI spelling who can help write SEO-optimized blog posts with target keywords.

As soon as you are the vocabulary of SEO flowers, it is time to step in and be practical. Since I promised them the shortest SEO tutorial ever, I have broken it into three very Width categories for beginners: content, technical and common use.

If you become more confidants with SEO, you can create strategies in any of these categories using the links below.

Building an SEO strategy: step-by-step tutorial

The structure of an SEO strategy can feel overwhelming when you are just starting. This tutorial leads you through the process until it becomes second nature.

1. Understand Search intention.

You can have the perfect blog post wrote, informative and really interesting. But if nobody is looking for the key term, nobody will find their content. If you know your search intent, you can contact your audience and create content that is actually valuable.

So think about: Who is your audience and what do you need to know? How does your offer solve a real pain point and what content would this message convey?

Answers to these questions are translated into key words. You can try to record these queries in your content.

The focus on relevant, helpful information will also help you add elements to your contribution. Google used These guidelines to set your page authority. In short, spam content will remain, while really helpful contributions will increase to the top.

Concentrate on creating concise, factual and well -structured content that offer a real value. Learn more about SEO writing to see how you can do it right.

2. Perform a competitive analysis.

In SEO, the ultimate goal is to secure a top spot on the first page. This mindshare can help you appear in Aios and land in front of organic seekers. Competitors stand between them and the number one ranking. So I always start with a competitor analysis.

First I create a table and list the websites that are already on the first page. I find their title phrases and the content structure. This helps me to understand what works and identify opportunities to improve my own content. I can then see whether there are scaly angles, newer trends or elements that are missing from competitors that I can capture.

My ultimate goal is to understand what my content must be for the help and most comprehensive.

Pro tip: Take a look at this for free Competition analysis templates To help them carry out a thorough analysis of competitors in their niche.

3. Improving your own on-page SEO.

When I deal with the SEO on the page, I think about the behavior and experience of users. What elements can I add to people to click on to learn more? Which elements would make my website frustrating or unusable that people would lead away?

These elements often refer to on-page SEO. Here are some elements that you can keep in mind:

• The title day is displayed in search results and browser tabs. It should be 50-60 characters and contain their primary keyword.
• The meta description offers a brief summary of the page content, which is displayed under the title in the search results. I try to make this text descriptive without involving the business details in the Weeds. I want people to click on the page and then learn about the service/product offered.
• Post -Header (H1, H2, H3 etc.) Structure your content hierarchically. With the copies, your contributions will be easy to read – both for search engines and for humans.
• URL structure Should be clean, descriptive and contain relevant keywords. Avoid long URLs with unnecessary parameters or numbers.
• Internal links You can distribute the side calculation on other pages on your website and guide users through their content.
• Image old text Makes pictures for screen readers and search engines visible. It should be precise and record relevant keywords if it is natural.

Pro tip: The metrics for user binding are increasingly recognized as important ranking factors. The content design has therefore become essential. Try adding elements such as videos and interactive tools to improve users’ commitment and to offer an additional value on your page.

Working with WordPress

WordPress is one of the most common content management systems for websites. It is also what I worked primarily throughout my career. I have found that the Yoastsee -Plugin is important to bring these websites to rank. Here I bast my SEO titles, snails, old tags, headings, URL structure and meta descriptions.

The Yoast plug-in also leads me through the recommended number of words. With the Premium SEO analysis, I can also receive SEO improvement suggestions for the text itself.

For example, I can see that I have not included internal links or targeted specific keyboards. I am also aware that my subheader does not reflect the content in the body. So I have to use the right keywords to have a much higher chance of the SERP.

The plugin also gives me valuable feedback on what works well. Who does not appreciate recognition if you do things right?

Optimization for AI

Now that we also optimize content for AI platforms, it has become increasingly valuable to understand strategic AI opportunities. I found that the Semrush -Ai -Ai -Toolkit did the job.

I like that Semrush offers both short -term and medium -term action plans. For example, in the medium term, they propose to include clear FAQs, explanatory videos and detailed step-by-step leaders. These tactics answer a big question: Does the user remove enough of your side?

If the answer is yes (and spend more time to deal with my content), your content sends a strong positive signal of search engines.

4. Immerse yourself deep into technical SEO.

With ranking sites, search engines rely on structured data, side speed, mobile friendliness and crawbability. Therefore, a solid understanding of the technical SEO for dominating the search is of crucial importance. Here are some elements that you need to know:

• XML sitemaps List all important pages on your website so that search engines can discover and crawl. It should be transmitted to the Google Search Console and updated regularly when changes in content change.
• Page loading speedOr how quickly your site loads for users affects the search. You want your website to be quickly loaded for better user experience. I improve the loading speed of my website by reducing image sizes, cleaning up code and enables the browser caching.
• Scheme -Markups Enter webcrawlers an additional context by labeling certain information. This data helps to understand Google’s web crawlers to understand the content and the sections it contains. I like to think of the crawlers as a reader who flare up my blog. You want an overview of the article I will treat and the breakdown of the sub -topics within the play.
• Mobile First indexing means that Google uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. Your mobile website should have the same content and the same functionality as your desktop version.
• Server response codes are HTTP status codes that indicate whether web requirements were successful (200), diverted (301/302) or failed (404/500). The proper code implementation ensures that search engines understand the side status correctly.
• Voice -optimization Includes the inclusion of natural language and fragbasized keywords that correspond to the way people speak. This can help you to ask Alexa, Siri or Google Home.

I recommend that we get into the technical SEO with our technical SEO guidelines. It also leads you through crabability, indexability, renderability, rankability and clicking.

5. Think locally.

Don’t overlook the local SEO! It is particularly powerful when someone is looking for “near me” and your business appears at the top. There is no better marketing than being right there when potential customers are actively looking for.

If you have a shop front, you would like to list it on Google so that it is displayed on Google Maps and drives the visibility and pedestrian traffic ahead.

Here are some tips for the local SEO:

• Add local key words. Integrate city or neighborhood-specific terms into your meta tags, descriptions and website content.
• Build local backlinks. Work with local companies or sponsorship events to earn high quality backlinks and improve local visibility.
• Use Google my business. Create and check your list so that you are displayed in local search queries and Google Maps. Make sure that all business details (address, telephone number, hours and services) are correct.
• Encourage reviews. Ask satisfied customers to leave reviews on Google. The better your ranking is, the higher the chance that you will be visited by customers.

6. Consider media wealth.

Rich Media includes audio, graphics, video, surveys or other interactive functions. Think like a user: Would you like to read a 4,000-word text block, or would you like to animations or graphics to break this? By structuring this data in the backend, you can optimize your content in order to make you more attractive in the SERPS.

7. Build historical optimization into your strategy.

When I work on SEO for a website with a large content library, I often find that some of the content is out of date. But that doesn’t mean it is useless.

In the case of an earlier job, I reorganized and rewritten event reviews that no longer meet their original purpose. Since each event focused on a specific topic or topic, it was easy enough to update the titles, headings and pictures. I also updated statistics, the content itself and the release date.

It didn’t happen overnight, but these pages came back to Google’s ranking when they were relevant for our audience again.

Another way to optimize older content is to add further examples and ensure that existing examples are still correct. Double test on the left and everything else that may have changed, like gradual instructions.

The SEO bases are still important in 2025.

Today’s SEO landscape includes the creation of helpful content for humans at the same time optimized for AI. If your website does not sound technically, you risk being overlooked, no matter how good your content is. Avoid slow load times, missing scheme or poor indexing.

Remember, persistence is the key. SEO is a long -term game. You won’t see any real results overnight. Consider it as a marathon, not as a sprint; Success comes from perseverance, not from speed.

Note from the publisher: This post was originally published in March 2013 and was updated for completeness.