Improve Search Engine Positioning With SEO: A Guide
Even with AI overviews and algorithm changes, SEO is still the most powerful tool in digital marketing if you’re looking for consistent traffic, better leads and long-term visibility online.
In fact, a 2024 report from SEO Inc. revealed that 53% of all website traffic comes from organic search. That’s more than half of your potential visitors relying on search engines to find the answers, products, or services they need.
So, where your business ranks on search engines matters. If you are not on the first page, your chances of being discovered drop dramatically. Ranking high is not about luck or guesswork, it is about a strategy built on solid search engine optimisation.
This guide covers all the essential elements of SEO that can help improve search engine positioning. Whether you’re a beginner or refreshing your approach, this breakdown will help you understand what to prioritise and why it works.
What Is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the process of increasing your website’s visibility on search engines like Google. When people search for terms related to your business, you want your site to appear on the first page.
Better visibility = more traffic, and more traffic = more leads and conversions.
There are three key pillars of SEO:
- On-page SEO focuses on what is visible on your website.
- Off-page SEO includes everything done outside your website to build authority.
- Technical SEO involves optimising the infrastructure of your site to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages.
Each element plays a role in helping you improve your search engine ranking. A well-rounded SEO strategy covers all three pillars and adapts to algorithm changes and user behaviours.
How To Improve Search Engine Positioning With SEO
Improving your position in search results requires a balance between content, trust signals, and technical stability. Below are the core components of any strong SEO campaign.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO includes all the optimisations made directly on your website pages. This is the foundation of your strategy and directly affects how search engines understand your content.
Start with keyword research. Understand what your target audience is searching for at each stage of the marketing funnel and create content around those terms. Include keywords naturally in your headings, subheadings, paragraphs, image alt texts, and meta descriptions.
Structure your content clearly. Use H1 for titles and H2s and H3s for subtopics. Write informative content that answers search intent. A page that matches what the user is looking for will always perform better.
Internal linking is also important. Link to related blog posts or service pages so that both users and search engines can easily navigate through your content. The better the structure, the higher the chance of improving rankings.
Content marketing and on-page SEO work hand in hand. Optimised content that answers user questions builds trust and keeps visitors engaged.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is all about reputation. It includes activities carried out beyond your website to increase its authority and trustworthiness.
A major component of off-page SEO services is link building. When other reputable websites link back to yours, search engines take that as a sign of trust. These backlinks are like votes of confidence, boosting your overall authority.
Other aspects include brand mentions, social sharing, influencer partnerships, and guest blogging. Engaging with your community online builds recognition and indirectly supports your search engine position.
Using managed SEO services can help scale these efforts. A dedicated team can handle outreach, monitor brand signals, and identify new opportunities that your internal team might miss.
Backlinks
Backlinks are still one of the most important ranking factors, but not all links are created equal. A link from a relevant and trusted source carries much more value than dozens from unrelated or low-authority websites.
According to a Backlinko analysis of over 11 million Google SERP results, the #1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2 through #10.
Building backlinks takes time. It is often worth working with professionals who specialise in off-page SEO services to manage this process effectively and avoid penalties from poor-quality links.
The focus should always be on quality over quantity. A handful of backlinks from high-authority news sites, industry directories, or well-regarded blogs will push your site up the rankings far more than hundreds of spammy ones.
Backlinks also help search engines discover new pages on your site. If your content gets linked from a well-crawled page, Google is more likely to find and index it quickly.
Authority Building
Search engines prioritise websites that appear credible and authoritative. Building authority does not happen overnight. It’s a long-term effort involving consistent branding, relevant content, and digital PR strategies.
Press coverage, influencer collaborations, and thought leadership articles all contribute to your domain’s authority. A strong digital PR strategy can attract media links and create buzz around your brand.
When combined with paid channels like Google Ads, you can create a cohesive presence across both organic and paid search.
Technical SEO
Even the best content can struggle if your website is difficult for search engines to crawl. Technical SEO focuses on your site’s infrastructure and helps remove the hidden barriers that can hold back your rankings. This includes everything from how your site is coded to how fast it loads and how mobile-friendly it is.
The right web development plays a major role here, a clean, well-structured site built with SEO in mind makes it easier for search engines to index your pages and for users to navigate them smoothly.
Tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics are essential for monitoring technical performance, discovering crawl issues, and analysing how users engage with your content.
Metadata
Metadata includes your page title and meta description. These are the first elements a user sees in search results. A well-written meta title and meta description can increase click-through rates and help search engines understand what the page is about.
Use your primary keywords naturally, avoid keyword stuffing, and keep the language clear. Metadata may not directly impact rankings, but better click rates send positive signals to search engines.
Schema
Schema markup is a type of structured data added to your website’s code. It helps search engines understand your content more precisely and can unlock rich results in the search listings, such as review stars, event details, sitelinks, product pricing, and FAQs.
By using schema correctly, you improve your visibility and increase the likelihood of getting noticed in Google SERP. This can lead to higher click-through rates and better positioning in certain search features.
There are many types of schema available depending on your business or content goals. Common examples include:
- Product schema – for online stores to display pricing, availability, and reviews directly in search results
- FAQ schema – to show a collapsible question-and-answer format under your listing
- Review schema – to highlight customer ratings and testimonials
- Local business schema – to provide address, phone number, opening hours, and geo-location for local SEO
- Article schema – ideal for blogs and news content to show publication dates and headlines more clearly
- Event schema – useful for businesses hosting events, workshops, or launches
- Organisation schema – to show details about your brand, logo, and contact info
Using the appropriate schema for your pages can improve the way your site appears in search and support your overall SEO strategy. Free tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or Schema.org provide good starting points for implementation.
LLMS.Txt
As AI-driven tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini continue shaping how people discover and consume content, a new web standard called llms.txt has been proposed to help website owners better control how these language models use their content.
Think of llms.txt as a similar concept to robots.txt, but instead of guiding search engine bots, it provides instructions specifically for Large Language Models (LLMs). This file, placed at the root of your domain, helps inform AI tools which pages are important, what your site is about, and which content you’d prefer they prioritise or avoid referencing.
The goal is to create a more transparent and structured way for AI systems to interpret your website, leading to more accurate summaries and mentions in AI-generated answers. It’s still in the early stages, but it represents a growing shift: optimising not just for Google, but for the AI models shaping the future of search.
How LLMs Are Changing SEO
Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are reshaping the way users interact with search engines, and that means SEO strategies need to evolve too. These AI systems generate quick answers, summaries, and suggestions based on user prompts, which can bypass traditional search listings altogether.
But that doesn’t mean SEO is losing value. In fact, it’s becoming even more important to optimise for AI-readability as well as human users.
Here’s how LLMs impact SEO and what you can do about it:
- Content Quality Matters More: LLMs prioritise high-quality, well-structured content when generating answers. That means your content must be accurate, up to date, and aligned with user intent.
- Clear Structuring Helps Visibility: Use headings, bullet points, and schema markup to make it easier for AI tools to understand and summarise your content accurately.
- Answer-Like Formatting Can Increase Inclusion in Overviews: Try to format your content with direct answers to commonly asked questions. Adding an FAQ section or a summary paragraph can increase your chances of being pulled into AI overviews.
- Entities and Topical Authority Are Key: LLMs rely heavily on understanding topics and associated entities. The more your website covers a topic in-depth, the more likely it is to be seen as a trustworthy source.
- Less Reliance on Clicks, More on Visibility: Users might get their answers directly from an LLM and never visit your site. So while traffic might drop slightly in some areas, brand visibility and authority will still grow, especially if you’re cited as a source.
As search engines become more AI-driven, your SEO strategy should include a content approach that aligns with how LLMs interpret, summarise, and serve web content. It’s not about replacing SEO, it’s about adapting it for a smarter search experience.
Core Web Vitals and Site Speed
Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that Google uses to measure user experience. These include loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Sites that perform well on these metrics are more likely to rank higher.
Improving your Core Web Vitals often includes reducing page load times, optimising images, using a good hosting provider, and avoiding layout shifts caused by slow-loading content.
Google’s PageSpeed Insights and tools like GTmetrix can help identify what is slowing down your site.
A technical audit team can prioritise fixes and guide improvements. If you would like to dive deeper into this area, we already put everything that you need in our technical side of SEO article.
Local SEO
Local SEO is essential for businesses that serve specific areas. Optimising your site for local keywords, creating location pages, and managing your Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) will help increase visibility in nearby searches.
Local citations, map pack listings, and customer reviews all contribute to higher local rankings. For a more detailed look at this strategy, we have a dedicated article covering local SEO techniques.
Final Tips To Improve Search Engine Positioning
To consistently improve your search engine positioning, stay focused on user experience and relevance. Combine high-quality content with strong authority signals and technical stability. Use tools to monitor your site performance, track keyword rankings, and spot any issues before they become major problems.
Working with managed SEO providers can save time and ensure that every aspect, from on-page improvements to backlink outreach, is covered efficiently.
While SEO focuses on organic visibility, search engine marketing (SEM) covers both paid and organic strategies, making it a powerful addition to your broader digital marketing efforts.
The journey to the top of search results is ongoing. But with the right knowledge and consistent effort, your brand can climb higher and stay competitive in your industry.
Need Help Putting It All Together?
Does all of this sound a bit overwhelming?
You’re not alone. Search Engine Optimisation involves a lot of moving parts, from content writing and backlink outreach to technical audits and structured data. If you are running a business, you may not have the time or resources to manage every detail yourself.
That is where a dedicated SEO team can step in.
Working with experienced professionals means every aspect of your SEO is taken care of. From on-page fixes to off-page SEO services, managed SEO allows you to focus on what you do best, while your rankings, traffic, and leads grow steadily in the background.
If you are ready to take your search engine positioning seriously, now is the time to start.
While SEO focuses on organic visibility, “search engine marketing” (SEM) covers both paid and organic strategies, making it a powerful addition to your broader “digital marketing” efforts.