What is SEO? Why It's important in 2026!

by Digital Marketing Institute

You’ve heard that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital digital marketing tool. But do you really know how SEO works?

SEO is made up of many elements and is the process of generating traffic from free, organic, editorial, or natural search results in search engines.

By leveraging SEO, you can make your website more visible. The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6% (compared to second and third-ranking results getting 18.7% and 10.2%), according to Backlinko research. So, getting that top spot or a place on Google’s first SERP page means more traffic and more opportunities for you to convert prospects into customers.

Now there’s also artificial intelligence to consider. AI-powered algorithms like Google’s RankBrain have significantly impacted SEO by enhancing search results. This is resulting in a more complex SEO landscape (more on that later…)

With all that in mind, let’s explore why SEO is so important and look at the 5 crucial elements of SEO you can use to drive traffic, generate quality leads and make sales.

Table of Contents

The Key Elements of SEO

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What are the Benefits of Using SEO?

There’s a good reason that many companies have SEO experts on their team and spend resources and money on using the tactic in marketing activities – it works!

Let’s look at four of the biggest benefits of using SEO and its impact on web traffic and leads.

1. SEO increases visibility and improves rankings

One of the most important functions of SEO is to increase your visibility, which means making it easier for prospects to find you when they search for something you have to offer. Visibility is directly related to your ranking.

The higher you rank on a search engine result page (SERP), the more likely prospects will see you and click through to your site, so it’s key to increase your organic page ranking.

For example, we recently updated a top performing blog on influencer statistics that had slipped down the rankings. By updating the content with new information and statistics, the blog now takes the top spot on Google.

Screenshot of SERP showing DMI blog at top

The more effective your SEO efforts, the higher your ranking and the better your visibility, which is especially important when you consider that a quarter of web users never click past the first SERP according to ‘The 2024 State of Marketing & Trends Report’.

2. SEO drives web traffic

Increased web traffic is one of the main goals of SEO. Consider this for a moment: the #1 organic result on Google search is 10x more likely to receive a click compared to a page in the #10 spot, according to Backlinko.

So, the further you move up the ranking, the more web traffic you will get.

The golden grail for many marketers is the ‘Featured Snippet’ which is often referred to as position #0 as it appears above the first ranked URL. This is usually content taken from a blog or landing page that answers a question people are searching for.

Here’s an example of a Featured Snippet when typing in the query ‘convert AU size to UK size’.

Screenshot of Featured Snippet example

If you manage to get a Featured Snippet you should give your organic click-through rate a huge boost. The key thing is to provide a solution through content that Google sees as useful enough to feature as a Featured Snippet.

If you want more people to find your website through a search engine, use SEO practices to rank among the top five positions, and ideally number one.

If you’re looking for agency support in the areas of SEO, content marketing and paid media, get in touch with Neil Patel Digital.

3. SEO shows authority

Page Authority (PA) is increasingly important to search engines as it’s becoming more important to web users.

Essentially, authority means that your website is trustworthy, high quality, relevant, and has something valuable to offer. This ties in with the fundamentals of Google E-E-A-T, which plays a big part in how your site is evaluated.

Scores range from 1 to 100 and the higher your number, the more authority your site has. You can find your PA rating by using tools such as Moz.

While it can be difficult to influence Page Authority, many SEO experts believe the best way to improve it is to create quality content, earn backlinks from reputable and trustworthy domains and reduce spam.

4. SEO delivers a better customer experience

Another reason SEO is critical is because all the time you put into generating great content and on-page SEO optimization improves the usability of your site. This creates a seamless and positive customer experience.

For instance, when you take steps to make your site responsive, it will make it usable for all your mobile visitors as well as people who visit from a laptop or desktop.

Similarly, by increasing your page load speed, you’ll reduce your bounce rate and encourage visitors to spend longer on your site. Consumers expect a page to load as quickly as possible with a limit on loading to not creep past three seconds!

The longer the load time, the higher the bounce rate and the lower your conversions.

You should also look at the customer journey. Review each touchpoint that a customer would come across. For example, on clicking a blog in Google search where does the customer go and what do they see? Is the content of high quality and relevant to search intent? Can they read the blog with limited interruptions (e.g. pop-ups)?

Go on the journey yourself to test the experience. If there’s something that distracts or hinders your experience, a customer will likely experience the same.

In the words of Luke O’Leary of NPD on the DMI podcast:

” Remember, Google’s clients are not those of us who are creating these brands. It is the people utilizing the search. So it becomes really important for us to focus and ensure that the experience and needs of each of our users are taken care of. “

What are the 5 Crucial Elements of SEO?

1. Keywords

Long gone are the days when keywords were the only SEO technique that mattered, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still crucial.

But what are keywords, exactly? Keywords are words and phrases that prospects use to find online content, and that brands can then use to connect with prospects who are looking for their products and services.

To make an impact with keywords in your SEO strategy, you need to do your research and use those insights to choose ones that will be the most effective in driving people to your content across channels.

” STAT: URLs that contain terms similar to a keyword have a 45% higher click-through rate compared to those without one. “–

When researching keywords, look for ones that have high search rates and low competition. Backlinko found that longer keywords between 10-15 words in length get 1.76x more clicks than single-word terms.

For example, you could choose a short-tail keyword (such as dog), long-tail keywords (such as terrier puppies for sale), and local keywords (such as puppies for sale in Boston) to work into your content.

Along with a primary or seed keyword, you should also have secondary and tertiary keywords as they will still offer value to your business.

Top tip: When gathering your keywords it’s important to think about search intent especially when it comes to feeding into Google’s AI algorithms. So, look at the queries that bring people to your website to come up with topics that you can create content around.

2. Content

Content is a vital part of SEO because it’s the vehicle you use to reach and engage audiences. Knowing your angle and crafting content that fits is essential.

For instance, if you owned a garden center and wanted to increase your visibility, you might publish a series of blogs about gardening, such as ‘How to Choose the Right Plant for Your Garden’’ or ‘5 Tips on How to Grow Herbs’ (see the featured snippet below based on the search term).

Screenshot of featured snippet showing gardening tips

So if someone wants to learn some gardening tips and went looking for that information, your blog would come up, and you’d be able to build a relationship with that prospect by providing valuable information and the go-to site in the future for this type of content.

Pro tip: You can look at Google’s suggestions in ‘People also ask’ to develop new content on that topic.

To stand out you need to create content that’s educational, but also interesting, relevant, and shareable. You can develop many content types such as:

Web content
Landing pages
Videos
Blogs (it’s easy to start your own blog!)
Infographics
Podcasts
Webinars
How-to guides
Whitepapers and original research
Ebooks
Social media posts
Local Listings

It’s important to mention video. Google loves video as a way to provide answers to search queries. If a term of phrase lends itself to a video, Google will display it.

This screenshot shows what comes up on typing in ‘how to change a plug’. As this query lends itself to a tutorial, the videos get priority on the page. Keep that in mind when creating video content and optimizing it.

Screenshot of video results in Google

Top tip: Don’t forget about YouTube for SEO. Check out ways to rank your videos using SEO on YouTube to drive traffic.

3. Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO involves external optimization practices that happen away from your site rather than on it.

The main technique used for off-page SEO is building backlinks since quality backlinks to your site from external sites tell search engines that your site is valuable and high-quality which helps to build authority.

There are many tactics to building backlinks. Some of the most effective ways are guest blogging, original research or whitepaper content, comprehensive toolkits or guides or even influencer marketing content.

The key to backlinks is that they are of quality from an authoritative domain. One quality backlink (e.g. from Forbes or the New York Times) is worth 100 poor quality ones.

What is SEO? Why It’s important in 2026!