SEO Fundamentals · Beginner’s guide

What is SEO and how does it work: a complete beginner’s guide

SEO is the set of techniques that help your website appear on Google when someone searches for what you offer. In this guide I explain what it is, how search engines work and what steps to take to start ranking.

Published July 15, 2026 · Updated October 2, 2026 · 12 min read

If you have a website and want it to appear on Google when someone searches for what you offer, SEO is your tool. In this guide I explain exactly what it is, how search engines work under the hood and what steps to take to start ranking, without unnecessary jargon.

If you already know the basics and want to jump straight to the point, I recommend going directly to the complete On-Page SEO guide or the full SEO audit in 7 steps.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the set of techniques and strategies you apply to your website (and outside of it) so that it appears in the top positions of Google when someone searches for something related to your business.

Think of it this way: every time someone types «bathroom renovation Valencia» or «how to choose hosting for WordPress», Google has to decide which pages to show and in what order. SEO is what you do to make sure your page is among the chosen ones.

Key fact: organic traffic (the traffic that comes from SEO) is the main source of qualified visits for most online businesses. Unlike advertising, you don’t stop getting visits when you stop paying: the work you invest keeps working for you months or years later.

How Google works (and why it matters)

To do SEO well, you first need to understand what Google does when someone searches for something. Basically, it goes through four phases:

1. Crawling

Google uses programs called crawlers or spiders that travel across the web following links from one page to another. When they find a new URL, they add it to a giant list of pages to visit. This process is called crawling.

2. Indexing

After crawling a page, Google analyzes its content (text, images, structure, structured data…) and decides whether to store it in its index. The index is like a giant library where Google keeps everything it knows about the web.

Important: not everything that is crawled gets indexed. If your page isn’t in the index, it can’t appear in the results. This is where robots.txt and sitemaps and canonical tags play a key role.

3. Ranking

When someone searches, Google checks its index and sorts the most relevant pages. That order is the ranking, and to calculate it, Google uses hundreds of signals: content relevance, domain authority, user experience, Core Web Vitals, search intent…

4. Presenting results

Finally, Google shows the results on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page): organic results, ads, featured snippets, knowledge panels, Google Maps… There are more and more types of results and fewer clicks per search, so ranking well is more important than ever.

The types of SEO you need to know

SEO isn’t just one thing. It’s usually divided into four main blocks, each focused on a different aspect of your website.

On-Page SEO

Everything you optimize inside your own website: title, meta description, heading structure, URLs, content, internal linking, images, structured data. You have complete control over it and it usually delivers the first visible results.

If you want to dive deeper, I have a complete On-Page SEO guide with the 8 essential elements.

Off-Page SEO

Everything that happens outside your website and that influences your authority: incoming links, media mentions, reviews, social presence. This block includes link building, one of the most important (and most delicate) areas of SEO.

Technical SEO

The set of optimizations that ensure Google can crawl, index and understand your website without friction: loading speed, Core Web Vitals, URL structure, structured data, HTTPS, canonicals… Without this, the rest of SEO falls apart.

Local SEO

Optimization specifically for appearing in searches with local intent: «bathroom renovation Torrevieja», «SEO consultant Valencia», «dentist near me». It includes optimizing your Google Business Profile listing, NAP citations and local pages.

How to start with SEO step by step

If you’re just starting, don’t try to cover everything at once. Follow this order and measure results at each step.

Audit your website’s current state

Before touching anything, measure. Install Google Search Console and Google Analytics, review which pages are indexed and which technical errors exist. If you want a proven method, I have a complete SEO audit guide in 7 steps.

Research keywords and search intent

Think about what your potential customers type on Google and prioritize by volume, competition and intent. Here’s how to choose keywords wisely.

Optimize the On-Page SEO of every page

Title, meta description, headings, content, internal links and images. It’s what delivers visible results fastest. Here’s the complete On-Page SEO guide.

Work on the technical side

Crawling, indexing, speed and Core Web Vitals. Start with LCP, INP and CLS.

Create useful content consistently

A blog isn’t for «filling space». It’s for answering your customers’ real questions. Here’s SEO copywriting vs standard writing to do it right.

Build authority (link building and brand)

Earn quality mentions and links. They won’t fall from the sky: you have to work on them with content, relationships and value proposals. Here are Off-Page SEO and link building strategies.

Measure, adjust and repeat

SEO isn’t a closed project, it’s an ongoing process. Audit every 3-6 months, review Search Console monthly and adjust your strategy based on data. If you work with WordPress, consider regular maintenance so the website doesn’t degrade.

The 5 most common mistakes when starting with SEO

After auditing over 40 projects, these are the mistakes I see over and over again in websites that are just starting:

Wanting results in two weeks. SEO is a medium-to-long-term channel. If someone promises you the Top 1 in a month, be suspicious.
Focusing only on the keyword and forgetting the intent. Ranking for a search is useless if the content doesn’t answer what the user is really looking for.
Neglecting the technical side. A slow website with crawling errors or poor structure loses positions even when the content is good. Check out how to speed up a slow WordPress.
Copying what your competitors do without criteria. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for you. Your strategy must adapt to your industry, your authority and your goals.
Quitting too early. Many projects stop halfway right when they were about to start delivering results. Consistency is what makes the difference.

Real experience: in one of my first freelance projects, a client had been publishing articles for three months and saw no results. When auditing, we discovered Google wasn’t indexing 60% of the blog because of a canonical issue and a badly generated sitemap. Within two weeks of fixing that, they started receiving their first visits. The technical side is almost never the flashiest, but it’s what holds everything up.

Basic tools to get started with SEO

You don’t need to pay for expensive tools to get started. With these free ones, you have more than enough:

Google Search Console

Google’s official tool. It tells you which searches bring you visits, indexing errors and Core Web Vitals status.

Google Analytics 4

Measure visitor behaviour: which pages they view, for how long, where they come from and what they convert into.

PageSpeed Insights

Analyzes your website’s speed and tells you exactly what to improve to meet Core Web Vitals.

Alex Figueiras TOOLS

Free suite of SEO utilities I’ve built: audits, meta tag generator, schema and more.

See tools →

Frequently asked questions about SEO

How long does SEO take to show results?

It depends on the industry, the competition and the website’s starting point. In new projects or with low authority, the first solid results usually appear between 6 and 12 months. In already-established websites, on-page SEO changes can be noticed within weeks. It’s a medium-to-long-term channel, not an immediate lever.

Are SEO and SEM the same thing?

No. SEO works on organic (free) traffic coming from Google’s natural results. SEM works on paid traffic (Google Ads). They complement each other well: SEM delivers immediate results while SEO builds a long-term asset.

Can I do SEO myself without hiring a specialist?

Yes, especially if you have a small website, a local business or a personal blog. With basic training and free tools you can achieve a lot. When the project grows, there’s a lot of traffic at stake, or competition is fierce, a specialist saves time and expensive mistakes.

Does SEO work for any type of business?

Yes, but with nuances. It works especially well when your potential customers actively search for what you offer on Google (local services, ecommerce, training, B2B…). If your product is very new or nobody searches for it yet, you may first need to generate demand through other channels before ranking.