The Truth Behind SEO: How It Works & Why You Need It

by Robert Bruce Woodcox

I have been ghostwriting for over 27 years. My first website was up and running in 2003/04. Even though I was a designer as well as a writer at the time, I needed help designing it and more importantly, making it work so the search engines of the time could “discover” it and me. I had no understanding at the time, that there was far more to marketing through a sharp, smart “looking” site than what I saw on my monitor.

It took me another eight years to understand that a certain type of strategy was required to beef up the allure of my site and that involved SEO work with the same company that had done that kind of work on updating my site. Until I contacted them, I was simply relying on Google’s Adwords (now defunct) without any other help to attract readers. In short, SEO is what people mean when they talk about “organic search.” Unlike Google ads, which is pay per click advertising, SEO is continuously working for you in the background, attracting potential customers through organic search results over time.

Though SEO is not a new concept, many business owners and service professionals don’t fully understand how it works, why it’s important, or the benefits that come with it. Yet for countless companies and freelancers, it’s how they scale their businesses. Finding clients through organic search results on platforms like Google or Bing has become as important as your traditional marketing strategies and I’m here to tell you why. And yes, Google’s organic search is still important, but it no longer directs search to our websites, it basically just answers to questions.

Digital marketing has dramatically changed the way people discover and choose businesses. It’s the new way of the world. When you hear “marketing,” you no longer think of printed posters or newspaper clippings. We think of Facebook ads or email blasts, but it is so, so much more. SEO, otherwise known as search engine optimization, has undeniably become one of the most powerful long-term digital marketing strategies available today.

So how does SEO work— and why does it matter?

Unlike paid advertising, SEO helps your website appear organically in search results. You don’t pay each time someone clicks your website. Instead, you optimize your content around the keywords, topics, and search phrases your audience is thinking about, making it easier for search engines to connect your website with people looking for your products or services.

Let me give you an example: let’s say you’re a shoe cobbler in Detroit, Michigan looking to target local customers. Your primary keyword would be “shoe cobbler” and your target geographical location would be Detroit, MI. Therefore, your primary key phrase might be “shoe cobbler Detroit, MI” or “shoe repair Detroit.” You would want to naturally incorporate other keywords or phrases such as shoe repair, boot repair, emergency shoe repair, etc.. to ensure you’re reaching the right audience. It’s pertinent that your website content is written with intent and purpose, otherwise you’re simply slapping words on the page.

A common misconception about SEO is that it’s all about repeating keywords. While keywords are certainly important, search engines are much smarter than they were back in the early 2000s. Nowadays, content is evaluated based on whether or not it genuinely answers a user’s question and provides a helpful experience—it’s all about relevance! Simply adding, shoe cobbler Detroit, shoe repair Detroit, boot repair Detroit, over and over and over again will NOT get you the results you’re looking for. Again, you want to be relevant to the search. If Google gets a sniff of “keyword stuffing,” your content is less likely to rank and you may face penalties. Search engines’ goal are to serve up the best answer — not the page that repeats a phrase or keyword the most.

More Than Just Keywords

Although adding a few keywords on-page seems simple enough, there is a lot morethat goes into search engine optimization. To be more specific, SEO is broken down into 3 main groups: on-page SEO, off-page SEO and technical SEO.

I’ll break them down simply: on-page SEO focuses on your website’s content, off-page SEO addresses factors that occur outside your website, i.e. backlinks, social media, etc.. and technical SEO addresses backend site factors that affect search-ability, user experience and site speed, i.e. mobile optimization, site health, etc..

As you can see, SEO is a different animal. It’s not one size fits all. Search engines continuously crawl and index websites, then evaluate which pages are most relevant and helpful to a user’s search. This is not an overnight process, and can take time. So it’s important to note that regardless of who manages your SEO, it can take time before desired results are seen.

Whether you’re just getting started or looking to improve your online presence, working with an experienced SEO professional can help ensure you’re on the right path from the start. And now, it is more important than ever to enhance your website organically because, the miracle that was Google Search for independents, freelancers, and ghostwriters through  Adwords isn’t the same animal as it once was.

Robert Bruce Woodcox has been a member of AOG for nearly 18 years. He is a national bestselling author and ghostwriter (New York Times, Los Angeles Times. He was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in fiction (2012). He is an accomplished ghostwriter with more than 52 books ghosted (all of which you can see on the Library tab on his site. Robert was also voted into the top ten most reliable ghostwriters in America by Publisher’s Weekly Annual Almanac (2023).