What is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is the work of getting a page shown as the best answer to the question someone types into Google. Unlike ads, you don't pay per click: the position is earned, and once earned it has to be maintained with continued effort.
Think of Google as a librarian who pulls a handful of pages off the shelf for every search. SEO is the work that gets your page onto that shelf, helps the librarian understand it correctly, and makes it the one chosen out of hundreds of pages answering the same question.
How does Google choose a page?
Selection happens in three steps, and each step depends on the one before it.
- Googlebot discovers the page through links and the sitemap. This is called crawling, and a page that can't be found never enters the race.
- Next, Google works out what the page is about and stores it in its index. Duplicate, empty or technically unreadable pages can be filtered out at this indexing step.
- When someone searches, Google ranks the indexed pages by relevance to the query, content quality, usability and context such as the language, location and device of the search.
The job of SEO is to make sure the page doesn't get stuck at any of these three steps. For most sites, the problem starts not with ranking but with the first two steps.
What does SEO involve?
| Area | What it covers | When it becomes the priority |
|---|---|---|
| Technical SEO | Crawlability, speed, mobile friendliness, correct redirects | When pages aren't getting indexed or the site is slow |
| Content | Pages that give a direct, accurate answer to the question being searched | When the pages exist but don't show up in search |
| Authority | Links and brand mentions from other trusted websites | When the content is good but competitors are always a step ahead |
| Local SEO | Google Business Profile, map results, reviews | When customers come from a specific city or neighborhood |
None of the four can replace the others. The best content stays invisible on a site that can't be crawled, and good content on a site with no authority falls behind the competition.
What is the difference between SEO and advertising?
Advertising is like renting a shop window. You're visible on the day you pay and gone the day you stop. SEO is building your own store. It takes longer to open, but its doors stay open every day. The two aren't rivals. Ads capture demand immediately, while SEO brings in that same demand over time at a lower cost.
How long does SEO take to work?
According to Google's own guide, in most cases it takes between four months and a year for improvements to be made and their effect to show. The timeline depends on the site's history, the strength of competitors and the difficulty of the target keyword.
There is one more thing that slows results down: impatience. On our own site, when we changed the title and copy of a well-ranking page four times in five weeks, the page slipped a little further after every change. Google re-evaluates every change, and a page that keeps getting tweaked never settles.
Has AI search killed SEO?
No, it has expanded its scope. Google's AI Overviews and systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity largely compile their answers from pages that are on the web and indexed. Google itself says no separate technique is needed to appear in these features and that the fundamentals of SEO still apply.
What has changed is how success is measured. The question is no longer only "what position are we in?" but also "are we cited as a source in the answer?" On our own site, AI impressions in Search Console rose from about 80 to 450 per day between June 23 and September 17, 2026, something the classic ranking report alone did not show.
The most common SEO mistakes
- Changing titles and copy before results have had time to appear keeps the page from ever settling.
- Cramming the same keyword into the text doesn't make the meaning clearer; it wears out both readers and Google.
- Bulk, cheap links from hundreds of unrelated sites add no value and carry risk.
- Mistaking length for quality is a trap. Google treats long texts mass-produced with AI and no oversight as low-effort content, and a short page that answers early can outrank a padded long one.
- Doing SEO without connecting Search Console is like walking without knowing where you're going.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I do SEO myself?
You can handle the basics. Setting up Search Console, adjusting page titles to match queries and writing pages that clearly answer the questions your customers ask cost nothing. For highly competitive keywords, however, running technical infrastructure, content planning and authority building together takes expertise and time.
Does SEO cost money?
You don't pay Google to appear organically in its results. The cost covers the work of the team doing it and the tools they use. At Seobaz, monthly SEO packages start at 24,000 TL + VAT (Turkish lira).
How can I see my site's SEO status?
The most reliable source is Google Search Console. It shows which queries you appear for, how many clicks you get and which pages aren't indexed. For a quick first look, you can also use our free SEO analysis tool.
As a first step, open the query report for the last three months in Search Console. The queries where you appear but don't get clicked often tell you on their own where to start. If you'd rather have a team handle the whole job, we explain how we work on our SEO agency page.
