What is SEO (Really)?

Many people talk about SEO, but if you ask them what it actually is, you’ll hear a lot of different answers. People will say that SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is all about things like:

Getting your website to rank #1 on Google for certain keywords.
Stuffing your pages with the “right” keywords.
Building backlinks to boost authority.
Tweaking technical settings or meta tags to appease algorithms.
Using secret tricks to “game” the search rankings.

Whereas the end result may actually be to improve the overall visibility of your website so that you get more leads or sales- this is only the end goal.

SEO Means Optimising for Search Engines (Literally)

So, what is SEO really about? In simple terms, SEO is about making your website as friendly as possible to search engines – in other words, optimising for search engines in a way that helps them do their job more efficiently. And why? Because the longer it takes for them to "understand" your website the more resources they need to expend in order to be able to deliver great results and more resources costs them...well, more time and money.

Let’s break that down. “Search Engine Optimisation” literally means we are optimising our site for search engines. The real goal isn’t just to achieve a top ranking or to tick off some checklist; the goal is to make it easier (and cheaper) for search engines to find, index, and retrieve information from your website. Ultimately, if you help search engines work faster and smarter, they’ll “reward” you by showing your content to more users.

Key Concept

This idea can be understood in terms of information retrieval. Information retrieval (IR) is the process search engines use to fetch relevant information from a huge pool of data (like the entire web) when you search for something. Think of it as Google’s job of scanning billions of pages to find answers. This process costs time and computing resources. Every extra second a search engine spends crawling confusing site structures or parsing poorly written content is an added “cost” in information retrieval.

SEO, at its core, is about reducing that cost of information retrieval. When your site is well-optimised, search engines can understand it quickly and with less effort. They don’t have to waste as many resources figuring out what your page is about or whether it’s useful. In return, your content is more likely to be indexed and served up to users efficiently. It’s a win-win: users get the info they need faster, and search engines save on computing power.

What Does “Cost of Information Retrieval” Mean?

In this context, “cost” is about the effort and resources a search engine must expend to get information from your site.

But think about that for a minute...there are billions are search queries carried every day worldwide. This means A LOT of resources need to go into that process.

Resources require time and infrastructure which in turn costs MONEY and now we're getting to the truth of what "optimising for search engines" is REALLY about. It's not just about delivering an excellent end SERP (Search Engine Results Page), it's about doing it as cost effectively as possible!

Imagine Google’s crawler (often called “Googlebot”) arriving at your homepage. If your SEO is poor, Googlebot might have to jump through hoops: dealing with slow page speeds, broken links, messy code, or unclear content. That’s a high cost in terms of processing time and computing effort.

On the other hand, if your site is well-organised and clearly structured, Googlebot’s job becomes easy. It can quickly crawl pages, understand their topic, and index them appropriately. The easier (or “cheaper”) you make it for search engines to retrieve your information, the more likely they are to crawl you frequently and rank your pages. After all, Google’s entire business is delivering relevant results to users quickly – and it prefers to do so with as little overhead as possible.

In fact, recent algorithm updates from Google reflect this push for efficiency. You may have heard of Google’s Helpful Content update. The purpose of that update was to reward sites that provide genuinely useful, people-first content and to filter out the bloated, unhelpful pages that don’t really solve anyone’s problem. Why would Google care? Because low-quality, misleading content wastes everyone’s time – users click a result and leave unsatisfied, forcing additional searches to get the info they were looking for. That’s bad for user experience and also a drain on Google’s resources. By down-ranking or not indexing such “unhelpful” content, Google not only improves user satisfaction but also reduces its own processing load. One report even noted that improvements to the helpful content system led to a 40% reduction in unhelpful content showing up in search results. In other words, Google is actively trying to avoid crawling and ranking content that raises its cost of retrieval with little payoff in user satisfaction.

So, how do we as website owners or SEO experts align with this goal? Let’s explore the main areas of SEO and how each one helps make things more efficient for search engines.

Key Ways to Reduce Search Engines’ Workload (Core SEO Areas)

When we approach SEO from the perspective of helping search engines, a lot of best practices fall into place. Here are the key aspects of SEO and how each contributes to lowering the “cost” of information retrieval for Google, Bing, and other engines:

1. Technical SEO: Helping Crawlers Navigate Efficiently

Technical SEO is all about the behind-the-scenes structure of your website. Think of it as making sure the plumbing and wiring of your site are in order so that search engine crawlers can move through without hiccups. Good technical SEO reduces friction for the bots that index your site.

Some ways technical SEO helps search engines include:

Clean Site Structure & URLs: A logical site architecture (clear hierarchy of pages and descriptive, simple URLs) means crawlers can easily find all your content. If your important pages are buried deep or have confusing URL parameters, the crawler has to work harder (or might give up). A clear structure is like giving Google a straightforward roadmap of your site.
XML Sitemaps & Robots.txt: Providing an up-to-date XML sitemap is like handing the search engine a cheat sheet of all your pages. It tells crawlers exactly where to go. Meanwhile, a well-configured robots.txt file ensures the bot doesn’t waste time on pages you don’t want indexed (like admin pages or duplicate content). This way, the crawler spends its limited “crawl budget” on the pages that matter most.
Fast Page Loading & Performance: Speed matters. Slow websites tie up crawling resources. If your page loads quickly and uses efficient coding practices, Googlebot can fetch more pages in less time. It’s the difference between wading through mud versus walking on a paved road. Faster sites not only please users but also let search engines cover more ground with less effort.
Mobile-Friendly Design: Today, crawlers mostly use a mobile-first approach (indexing the mobile version of sites). If your site’s mobile version is broken or hard to crawl, that’s extra work for search engines to figure out the content. Responsive, mobile-optimised design ensures the content is easily accessible, again reducing retrieval effort.
Structured Data & Schema Markup: By adding structured data (like Schema.org markup) to your HTML, you directly feed search engines explicit information about your content (e.g., “this is a recipe with these ingredients, cooking time is 30 minutes,” or “this is a product with these ratings”). This saves the engine from guessing or deducing those facts. It’s like handing them a neatly filled-out form about your page, which is far less work to process.

In essence, technical SEO is about removing technical barriers and greasing the wheels for search engine crawlers. The less time they spend deciphering your site’s structure or waiting on slow servers, the more efficient (and happy) they are.

2. On-Page Optimisation: Making Content Easy to Digest

On-page SEO deals with the content on your pages and how it’s structured. When done right, on-page optimisation makes it almost effortless for a search engine to determine what your page is about and which queries it should rank for. It’s about speaking the search engine’s language.

Key on-page practices that reduce the search engines’ workload:

Clear, Relevant Titles & Headings: Your title tag and headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) should accurately outline what the content covers. Think of headings as an outline or table of contents for the crawler. If your H1 says “Guide to Italian Cooking” and your H2s break it down into sections like “Pasta Basics” and “Sauce Techniques,” a search engine can quickly grasp the main topics. Using headings in a logical hierarchy (H1 for the main topic, H2 for sections, H3 for sub-sections, etc.) provides a structured map of the content. This hierarchy should flow in a way that contextually makes sense – like a story that starts with the most important points and then drills down into details.
Contextual and Semantic Relevance: It’s not just about repeating a keyword 100 times. In fact, that can confuse or annoy search engines (not to mention readers). Instead, focus on covering the topic comprehensively and naturally. Use related terms and answer common questions around the subject. For example, if your page is about “electric cars,” discussing related concepts like “battery range,” “charging stations,” and “EV maintenance” will signal to Google that your content is relevant and thorough. The search engine doesn’t have to work hard to figure out if your page truly covers the topic – it will see the semantically related terms and subtopics right there.
Proper Use of Meta Tags: Meta descriptions, image alt tags, and descriptive anchor text for links all help provide context. A well-written meta description (even though it’s mainly for users in search results) can reinforce what the page is about. Image alt text helps Google understand images without heavy analysis. Descriptive anchor texts on internal links (e.g. linking the words “on-page SEO checklist” to a page about that) give the crawler quick insight into what the linked page contains. All these little cues reduce the guesswork the engine has to do.
Concise, Quality Content: Rambling or fluff content can obscure the main points. While long-form content often ranks well due to depth, it’s important that even a lengthy article stays on-topic and well-structured. If your page goes off on tangents unrelated to the title, the search engine might get mixed signals about relevancy. Keeping content focused and divided into logical sections ensures the crawler identifies the core information easily. It’s like reading a well-edited article versus an unedited stream of consciousness.
User-Friendly Formatting: Bullet points, numbered lists, tables, and highlighted key phrases (bold/italic) can make important information stand out. Why does this matter for search engines? Modern search engines often look for quick answers to serve as featured snippets or to answer voice queries. If you format a critical answer in a clear list or Q&A format, the engine can extract that info with minimal effort. You’re effectively handing Google a ready-made answer on a platter.

In short, on-page optimisation is about clarity and relevance. When a search engine crawls a well-optimised page, it should immediately understand: “Ah, this page is clearly about X topic, covering sub-points A, B, and C.” That speed of comprehension is exactly what we want – it means our page is doing some of the search engine’s work for it. In fact, even AI-based search engines prefer content that’s well-organised and meaningful rather than cluttered with fluff. As one analysis put it, generative engines prioritise content that is well-organised, easy to parse, and dense with meaning (not just keywords). By optimising your on-page content, you’re not only helping today’s search algorithms but also making your site friendly to emerging AI-driven systems.

3. Internal Linking: Connecting the Dots for Context

Imagine walking into a huge library (the internet) and trying to find information on a specific topic. It’s much easier if books on the same subject are shelved near each other and have clear references to one another. That’s essentially what a good internal linking strategy does for your website – it creates a network of related content that search engines can traverse easily to understand context and relationships.

How internal links reduce information retrieval effort:

Semantic Content Clusters: When you link pages that are topically related, you’re telling the search engine, “Hey, these pages belong together on a certain subject.” For instance, if you have a main article about “SEO Basics” and it links out to sub-articles like “Keyword Research 101,” “On-Page SEO Best Practices,” and “Technical SEO Checklist” – and those in turn link back to the main guide – you’ve built a tightly knit cluster of content. Search engines crawling these links get a clear signal that all these pages are part of an “SEO” knowledge hub. This contextual grouping means Google can index and rank this cluster knowing each piece’s role, without having to deduce the relationships purely by content. It’s like connecting the dots for them in advance.
Descriptive Anchor Text: The clickable text of your internal links (anchor text) acts as a clue for what the linked page is about. If a link from one article says “internal linking best practices” and points to another page, a search engine immediately learns that the target page likely covers that topic. Using descriptive, relevant anchor text (instead of generic “click here” links) is crucial. It’s a shortcut for search engines – they essentially get a one-phrase summary of the target page’s content via the anchor. However, a word of caution: avoid overly spammy or repetitive exact-match anchors. Google’s Penguin algorithm (which targets manipulative linking tactics) might get triggered if you link unnaturally. The key is to be natural and user-friendly: link where it makes sense, and use anchor phrases that genuinely describe the destination page.
Efficient Crawl Paths: Internal links determine how a crawler moves through your site. Ensuring that every important page is linked from at least one other page creates multiple pathways for discovery. For example, your new blog post about “Local SEO Tips” should link to your main “SEO Guide” page, and maybe also to a related “Local Marketing Strategies” page if relevant. Now Googlebot might discover that new post not just via your sitemap or blog listings, but also while crawling those older pages. Multiple internal entry points to a page tell Google, “This page is important, we reference it often,” which can encourage more frequent crawling. Essentially, you’re helping the crawler find all your content without expending extra effort wandering aimlessly.
Avoiding Orphaned Pages: Orphan pages (those with no internal links pointing to them) are like books lost in the library with no catalog entry. A search engine might never find them, or if it does, it won’t see them as part of your site’s content network. Making sure every page (especially new content) is linked from some other relevant page ensures Google’s bots can naturally reach it during a crawl. It’s much more efficient than relying solely on a sitemap or waiting for external links.
Better User Navigation (Indirect SEO Benefit): Good internal linking also keeps users engaged by helping them navigate to related content easily. If users find what they need and stay on your site exploring, search engines notice those positive engagement signals (like longer dwell time, multiple pages per visit, etc.). A strong internal linking setup – where related articles cross-reference each other – tends to correlate with a site that’s helpful and well-organised. Google itself has noted that how your pages link together, what questions you answer, and whether your site is helpful and trustworthy all contribute to your authority in a topic. In other words, logical internal links reflect a site that is comprehensive and user-friendly, which search engines love.

So...internal linking weaves your individual pages into a coherent web of knowledge. For search engines, it’s like getting a well-organised research paper with proper citations, instead of a disjointed collection of notes. They can follow the links like a trail of breadcrumbs to see how thoroughly you cover a topic and how each piece of content relates to another. This not only aids crawling but also reinforces your topical relevance in the eyes of the algorithm. (And as a bonus, it makes your human readers happy too!)

4. Page Experience & Satisfying User Intent

This aspect of SEO is sometimes underestimated: the overall page experience and how well your content meets the user’s intent. What does that have to do with helping search engines? Quite a lot, actually.

Remember, search engines want to serve results that make users happy on the first try. If your page clearly and immediately satisfies what the user was searching for, then the user doesn’t need to hit “back” and click on another result (or refine their query). That ends the search session successfully, which is a perfect outcome for the search engine as well. Every additional query or “pogo-sticking” back to the results is extra work for Google and a sign that the initial result wasn’t ideal.

Here’s how focusing on user intent and experience reduces search engine effort:

Matching Content Format to Intent: Depending on what the user is looking for, certain formats work better. If someone searches “how to tie a tie,” a quick visual step-by-step or a short video might be the best answer, rather than a 2,000-word essay. If your page matches what users want – say, an instructional graphic or a concise how-to list for that query – those users will be satisfied and won’t need to look elsewhere. Search engines pay attention to this. When a result quickly answers the query and the user doesn’t come back to search again, it’s a signal that the engine did its job well by choosing that result. So using the correct content type (article, video, infographic, interactive tool, etc.) to satisfy the query intent makes a big difference.
Clear Layout and Usability: A page that’s easy to read, with clear headings, good font sizes, and not too many annoying pop-ups or ads, will retain users better. Google has introduced metrics like Core Web Vitals (measuring things like loading speed and layout stability) to quantify aspects of user experience. If your page is user-friendly and loads fast, Google’s algorithms see that as a positive quality signal. Why? Because a user-friendly page means people quickly get the info with minimal frustration, and the search engine’s goal of delivering a good result is achieved without further intervention. Conversely, a poor user experience (say, content hidden behind intrusive pop-ups) might cause a user to abandon your page and try another result, meaning Google’s job isn’t done yet.
Meeting the Query Completely: The best pages often anticipate related questions a user might have. For example, a page about “planting a rose garden” might also briefly cover related questions like “When is the best season to plant roses?” or “How often should you water rose bushes?” – not as the main focus, but to make the page more comprehensive. By structuring content to cover the primary query and logical follow-up questions, you increase the chance that a user’s needs are fully met in one place. When Google finds a page that can answer multiple facets of a query, it may favor it because it simplifies the user’s journey (and thus the search engine’s task). Google’s own guidelines talk about creating helpful, people-first content, and this is exactly that. If your page saves users from making additional searches, you’ve effectively reduced the overall work the search engine has to do for that user’s session.
Positive Engagement Signals: When users are happy with a page, they tend to stick around longer, maybe scroll through more of it, or even share it. These engagement signals (while indirect and sometimes debated in SEO circles) can inform search engines about content quality. A page that consistently satisfies users will, over time, build a reputation for reliability. From Google’s perspective, such a page is a “low-risk” result to show – they can be confident it will solve the user’s query. Again, that means less churn in the results and less need for Google to swap in alternative results. In short, happy users = happy search engine.
Efficient Templates and Site Design: If your site has multiple pages of a certain type (say, product pages, or blog posts in a series), having a well-optimised template means every new page is consistently good. For instance, an e-commerce site might ensure every product page template includes high-quality images, a detailed description, reviews, specs, and related products. This consistency helps search engines because once they successfully parse one page, they can parse similar pages easily. They know exactly where to find the key information on each page of that type. It’s like training the crawler once, and then it can apply that knowledge across your whole site, saving effort.

All of the above contribute to a scenario where Google’s users (the searchers) get what they need swiftly on your site. That in turn makes Google look good for delivering your page. It’s akin to you doing Google a favour: you’ve built a page that makes their search results better with minimal tweaking on their end. Thus, pages that excel in user intent satisfaction and experience often get a boost. (It’s no coincidence that Google’s algorithms increasingly incorporate user experience criteria – they know it leads to more efficient, high-quality search results.)

5. Authority & Backlinks: Earning Trust (the Right Way)

We can’t talk about SEO without mentioning backlinks and authority. For a long time, PageRank – Google’s original algorithmic formula for evaluating link authority – was the dominant factor in SEO. PageRank essentially treats each link to your site as a “vote” or endorsement. While SEO has evolved to include many more signals (user experience, relevance, etc.), links are still an important piece of the puzzle. In fact, Google’s own documentation confirms that PageRank, though much evolved, “continues to be part of our core ranking systems.” But how do backlinks tie into this theme of reducing the search engine’s workload?

Think of backlinks as a shortcut for search engines to evaluate credibility. If a lot of reputable sites link to your page, Google can infer that your content is probably high-quality or important – because others vouched for it. In a sense, those links give Google a “pre-screening.” It’s like a professor getting a stack of research papers and noticing that one paper is cited by many others; it’s likely an important one, so the professor might read it first or with special attention.

Here’s how building authority with backlinks helps:

Faster Trust Signals: A new page on an unknown site is like an unproven entity – Google has to rely purely on the on-page factors and user feedback to gauge its quality, which can take time. But if that page earns a link from a highly trusted site (say, BBC News or a .gov domain), Google will take notice immediately. It’s as if someone Google already trusts is saying, “Hey, this is worth looking at.” That can lead to quicker indexing and a boost in ranking. The search engine doesn’t have to do as much heavy lifting to verify the content’s usefulness because the backlinks are providing an outside vote of confidence up front.
Endorsements of Relevance: Not all links are equal – the context and relevance of the linking site matters a lot. A link from a topically related, authoritative site is like a double endorsement: it says your page is not only quality but also highly relevant in that subject area. For example, if you run a cooking blog and a famous chef’s website links to your recipe page, that’s a strong signal that your recipe is reputable (the chef is an authority in cooking, after all). So Google can more confidently serve your page for cooking-related queries, trusting it’s likely to satisfy the user. In terms of workload, it means Google’s ranking algorithms can rely a bit more on these external cues rather than having to only analyze your page in isolation. The backlinks have effectively done some of the verification work.
PageRank Flow and Discovery: When authoritative sites link to yours, they’re not just passing “ranking power” but also helping with discovery. Google crawls popular, trusted sites very frequently. If your site is linked from one of them, the crawler will find you sooner and visit you more often. It’s like getting VIP entry – you’re in Google’s field of vision because of who “recommended” you. More frequent crawling means your new content gets picked up faster, and overall Google stays more up-to-date with your site. It doesn’t have to spend extra effort re-discovering your content from scratch; the links keep pointing it back whenever you publish something new.
Quality Over Quantity: It’s worth noting that these benefits only come from the right kind of links. Spammy links or links from irrelevant sources don’t help (in fact, they can hurt). Google’s algorithms like Penguin were specifically designed to sniff out unnatural link patterns and discount or even penalize them. If someone tries to “cheat” by getting dozens of random low-quality links, Google might actually have to increase its effort by applying filters and scrutiny to your site. That’s obviously the opposite of what we want. The takeaway is that earning a few high-quality, relevant backlinks is far more valuable than throwing hundreds of shady links at a site. It’s like giving Google one strong reference letter rather than a stack of dubious ones.
Link Authority + Great Content = Big Wins: A final point to tie this together: if your site has excellent content (all the things we covered in points 1-4) and you secure some strong backlinks, you’ve hit the sweet spot. You’re making things easy for search engines internally (through structure, content, etc.) and externally (through third-party validation). That combination often yields the best rankings. From Google’s perspective, a page with solid content and solid backlinks is the lowest-risk, lowest-effort result to serve – users will likely be happy with it, and other sites have essentially vouched for it.

To put it plainly, link building is essentially about making your site easier for Google to trust. Trusted sites make Google’s life easy – they can serve those in results with confidence and not worry that users will have a bad experience. That doesn’t mean you should chase links at all costs; rather, focus on earning links by creating content worth linking to and by building relationships in your industry. When you have the right links pointing to you, Google can spend less time doubting or double-checking your credibility. It already sees you as part of the “good neighborhood” of the web.

Topical Authority: Becoming the Go-To Source

Up to now, we’ve talked about making individual pages and the site structure appealing to search engines. But there’s a bigger-picture strategy that ties many of these principles together: building your site’s topical authority. This concept has gained a lot of traction in recent years, and for good reason – it’s incredibly powerful for SEO and aligns perfectly with the idea of reducing search engines’ work.

Topical authority refers to your website being recognized as a comprehensive authority on a particular subject or niche. It means you don’t just have one or two pages on a topic; you have many pages covering the breadth and depth of that topic, interlinked in a sensible way. Essentially, you become the go-to library or reference source for that subject.

Why does this matter? Because if search engines perceive you as topically authoritative in a domain, they will favor your content in search results (even for queries you didn’t explicitly target with keywords). It also means they’ll crawl your site more frequently and thoroughly, trusting that their time is well spent because you consistently provide value in that domain. Again, it comes back to reducing their workload: if your site can answer a wide range of queries in a topic area, Google doesn’t have to go hunting elsewhere for good answers – it can keep tapping into your content.

Here’s how to build and leverage topical authority:

Keyword Research vs. Topical Research

First, let’s distinguish between traditional keyword research and broader topical research/coverage. Both are important, but they serve different purposes:

Keyword Research

Keyword Research is about finding the specific search terms (often with commercial intent) that you want to rank for – the phrases your target audience uses when looking for your products, services, or content. It’s typically focused on what drives your business: what you offer, who you offer it to, and where you offer it. Keyword research yields a list of “money” keywords and related terms to optimise for on your key pages. For example, a local bakery might target keywords like “best cupcakes in London” or “custom birthday cakes London.” These are specific and directly tied to attracting customers.

Topical Research

Topical Research goes broader and deeper. Instead of zeroing in on just the lucrative keywords, it asks: “What are all the related topics and questions someone interested in this field might have?” It’s about mapping out an entire subject area and creating content to cover every significant angle of it. For a bakery site, topical research might lead to content about baking tips, recipes, cake decorating tutorials, ingredient guides, the history of certain pastries, how to cater events, etc. Many of these topics might not directly advertise your products, but they establish your site as a rich resource on baking and pastries. Topical research is about becoming contextually complete in your niche.

A common mistake is focusing only on the short-term keyword strategy (“let’s rank for cake shop London”) and neglecting the broader topical coverage. Doing so might get you ranking for a few main terms, but you’ll miss out on building that deeper trust with search engines that says “this site is an expert on this subject.” When you invest in covering your topic comprehensively – even including informational articles or guides that aren’t directly selling something – you signal to Google that you’re serious about this domain, not just cherry-picking keywords.

From Google’s perspective, a site that demonstrates topical authority is a safer bet to rank for any query in that subject area. If they show a result from such a site, the user is more likely to get a thorough answer, maybe even answers to related questions. That means fewer follow-up searches, which again means Google’s work ends with your site.

Covering a Topic in Breadth and Depth

To achieve topical authority, you need both breadth and depth in your content coverage:

Breadth: Cover all the major subtopics and questions within your main topic. Make a big list of relevant subtopics. If your main topic is “digital marketing,” breadth means addressing subtopics like SEO, content marketing, email marketing, social media, PPC advertising, analytics, etc. If a user can think of a question or subtopic related to your niche and you don’t have content about it, that’s a gap to fill. Breadth is about not leaving obvious holes in your topical coverage.
Depth: For each of those subtopics, create content that thoroughly addresses it. Don’t just scratch the surface. Depth means if you have a page on “email marketing basics,” it should dive into setting up campaigns, list building strategies, measuring open rates, common mistakes, etc., or perhaps you have multiple detailed articles covering each of those facets. A shallow 500-word article won’t cut it if the topic really warrants more detail or insight. Depth signals true expertise – that you’re not just mentioning a subtopic for the sake of it, but really teaching or explaining it fully.

When you put breadth and depth together, you essentially build a content network around your topic. This often takes the form of content clusters or a hub-and-spoke model: a broad “pillar” article that is very comprehensive on the main topic, with many narrower supporting articles linking to and from it. For example, you might have “The Ultimate Guide to SEO” as a pillar page, and it links out to detailed articles like “How to Do Keyword Research,” “On-Page SEO Best Practices,” “Technical SEO 101,” “Link Building Strategies,” etc. Each of those, in turn, links back to the main guide and to each other where it makes sense. This interlinking (notice how internal linking strategy pops up again here) ties your breadth and depth together, creating a clear structure that both users and search engines can navigate.

Google evaluates topical authority by looking at how your content is written, how your pages connect, and how well you cover a topic from different angles. If it sees a tightly interconnected cluster of pages all about a subject, and each page is high-quality, it begins to “trust” your site as an authority in that domain. That trust can lead to an upward spiral: your pages start ranking higher collectively, you get more traffic (for lots of long-tail searches, not just the head terms), and often more backlinks naturally because people reference your informative content. All of those outcomes further solidify your authority.

The Payoff: Lower IR Costs and Higher Rankings

Once you establish strong topical authority, the benefits are huge:

Crawl Priority: Google will crawl your site more frequently and deeply. It recognizes that your site is one of the key resources for Topic X, so it wants to keep its index of your content fresh. This is an efficiency move – crawling you yields a lot of value because it’s likely to find new and relevant info for users’ queries. The search engine essentially allocates more of its crawl budget to you because you’ve proven your site is worth it.
Faster & Broader Rankings: When you have topical authority in an area, any new content you publish in that area tends to rank faster and better. Since Google already “knows” you’re an expert on the subject, it will give your new page the benefit of the doubt. It’s not unusual for authoritative sites to see their fresh articles ranking on page 1 shortly after publishing, even with few or no external links, purely because of the site’s overall reputation. Also, you’ll find you start ranking for a wide variety of related keywords that you might not have even targeted explicitly – because Google understands your content deeply and associates your site with that whole topic cluster.
Better Shot at Competitive Keywords: Remember those high-value commercial keywords from our earlier keyword research? Once you have topical authority, you’ll likely find it much easier to rank for those, even if they are competitive. For example, a broad keyword like “running shoes” is very competitive. A brand new site would struggle to rank for it. But if you’ve spent time becoming the authority on “running” – with articles on training, injury prevention, gear reviews, running shoe technology, athlete interviews, etc. – then your chances of ranking a “Best Running Shoes” page improve dramatically. Google sees that you’re not a one-page wonder; you’re a genuinely authoritative source on the subject of running and running gear. In essence, topical authority can be your springboard to tackle the really valuable head terms.
Resilience to Algorithm Changes: Building topical authority is a long-term play, and one of the rewards is that you generally become more resilient to algorithm updates. Google updates (core updates, etc.) often aim to refine how they evaluate content quality and relevance. If your site is truly the best answer on a topic (because you’ve covered it fully and kept content quality high), you tend to ride out these changes without drastic drops. In fact, Google’s moves towards AI summaries and richer search results make topical authority even more important – because the algorithms are increasingly looking for trusted, comprehensive sources (more on this in the next section).

To tie it back to our theme: achieving topical authority is like becoming Google’s favorite textbook on a subject. Instead of scanning dozens of mediocre sites to answer a user’s complex query, Google can pull from your site’s rich content knowing it likely has the answer (and then some). You’ve essentially made the search engine’s life easier on a broad scale, and in return, it rewards you with more visibility.

Of course, building topical authority requires effort and planning – it doesn’t happen overnight. It means creating lots of high-quality content, interlinking it thoughtfully, and maybe even pruning or merging content if you find overlap. But the payoff is a durable SEO advantage. Many SEO experts now say that covering topics comprehensively is the new key to dominating search, as opposed to the older mindset of just targeting single keywords. And with the rise of AI in search results, this comprehensive approach is becoming even more critical.

The Impact of AI: LLMs, GEO, and the Future of Search

In the past couple of years, there’s been a big shake-up in how people get information online. The emergence of AI chatbots and large language models (LLMs) – like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard – means users can sometimes get direct, conversational answers without even visiting a traditional website. Just ask the AI a question, and it responds with a nicely packaged answer drawn from its training on web data. Understandably, this caused some panic in the SEO world: if AI can just tell people the information (often pulling from our websites behind the scenes), who needs to click on search results anymore? Would SEO become irrelevant?

For a while, it looked like a real threat. Early AI-powered answers often didn’t clearly cite where they got their information. If the AI could scrape the web, learn from our content, and then regurgitate an answer to the user, that user might never know (or care) which site provided that knowledge. Traffic to websites could drop, and the incentive to create great content could drop too – a worrying scenario for content creators and SEO professionals.

However, both for ethical reasons and due to user feedback, AI search systems have started to incorporate citations and references. Now, many AI-driven search results (like the new Bing or Google’s Search Generative Experience) will actually list the sources they drew from, often with links. For example, Microsoft’s Bing AI prominently cites its sources in the AI-generated answer, so users know exactly where the information came from and can click through for more context. Google’s AI summaries similarly include clickable source links. This is crucial – it means that websites still get visibility and credit when their content informs an AI answer.

This new landscape has given rise to a concept some are calling GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). GEO is like the next evolution of SEO. Instead of just optimising for the blue-link search results, we’re now thinking about optimising to get our content featured in those AI-generated answers and snapshots. The “rules” of GEO are still being figured out, but they align with many of the principles we’ve already discussed:

Well-Structured, High-Quality Content Matters More: AI models like LLMs have basically read the internet. They generate answers based on patterns in the data they’ve seen. If your content is clear, well-structured, and authoritative, it’s more likely to be picked up by these models either during their training or via live web-browsing for answers. In fact, early observations indicate that content that is organised (with summaries, bullet points, etc.) is easier for AI to extract and use. As noted in an analysis by a16z, traditional SEO might have rewarded keyword usage, but generative engines prioritize content that’s well-organised and dense with meaning (not just keywords). That sounds an awful lot like everything we’ve covered about good on-page SEO and topical authority.
Reference Frequency (Being Cited by AI): In the world of GEO, success isn’t just about your rank on a SERP, it’s about how often your brand or content is cited in AI-generated responses. You could have an excellent article that might not rank #1 in traditional search, but if an AI finds it to contain the exact info needed to answer a question, it might surface a portion of it with a citation. This is a new kind of visibility. It means even if users don’t click immediately, they see your brand as the authority behind the answer.
Topical Authority and Trust Are Crucial: If you think Google was picky about what it shows in top results, imagine how picky an AI must be when essentially providing a single synthesized answer. AI will (ideally) pull from sources that are accurate and reliable. So websites that have strong E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals and topical authority have a better shot at being chosen as the source for an AI’s answer. We’re already seeing that content which matches user intent well and is structured clearly (like FAQ pages, how-to guides, etc.) tends to do well in AI summaries.
Adapting Content for AI: On a practical level, some SEO experts are suggesting tweaks to content strategy for the AI era. This might include adding concise “key takeaway” paragraphs to articles (so AI can grab a summary easily), using schema markup like FAQs to delineate questions and answers, and generally writing in a way that’s straightforward and fact-rich (since AI models can get confused by ambiguity or overly flowery language). In essence, writing for AI isn’t that different from writing for users – clarity and substance win – but it might involve anticipating the kind of direct questions users could ask an AI.

One silver lining is that AI-generated answers often handle simple or factual queries, but they still rely on detailed content for complex questions. And because AI platforms now show sources, having your site cited by an AI can actually drive curious users to click through. For example, if an AI says, “According to GrahamSEO, the true purpose of SEO is to reduce search engines’ cost of retrieving information…,” a user might think, “Hmm, that’s interesting, let me read more from GrahamSEO on this.” In that sense, being cited is like being given a vote of confidence in front of the user.

From the search engines’ perspective, the integration of AI doesn’t change their fundamental goal: provide users with accurate, helpful information quickly. If anything, it raises the bar for content quality. An AI answer that misleads users (due to drawing from bad info) reflects poorly on the search service. So Google and others will lean heavily on content that they have high confidence in. How will they measure that confidence? Likely through the same signals we’ve discussed: your site’s authority on the topic, the consistency of your facts (no contradicting data across your pages), freshness of information, user engagement, etc., all rolled into their selection algorithms.

In summary, AI is changing the game, but the “new” game rewards the same core principles: be the best, most reliable source. If you’ve been following a solid SEO strategy – technical excellence, great content, topical authority, genuine user focus – you’re already well-positioned for this AI-driven search future. You might need to make a few tactical adjustments (like formatting content a bit differently or targeting new question-style queries), but the foundation remains: help the user, and you help the search engine (AI or not) to deliver your content.

Click here to see our Generative Optimisation Service page.

White Hat vs. Grey Hat (and Why It Matters More Than Ever)

No discussion of SEO would be complete without touching on the notorious “hats” of SEO strategy:

White Hat SEO

Refers to techniques and strategies that align with search engine guidelines and focus on providing real value to users. White hat practitioners earn their rankings through quality content, proper optimisation, and genuine authority building. In other words, everything we’ve been talking about – reducing search engines’ work by doing things the right way – is white hat SEO.

Grey Hat SEO

These tactics walk the line between acceptable and unacceptable, often exploiting loopholes or taking shortcuts. For example, aggressively buying backlinks or using private blog networks (PBNs) to inflate your site’s authority could be seen as grey hat. It’s basically trying to inject PageRank and cheat the “earned authority” system. Grey hat methods aren’t outright illegal in the rulebook, but they’re risky and can turn into black hat if pushed too far.

Black Hat SEO

These are clearly unethical or forbidden techniques that violate guidelines – think cloaking, hidden text, keyword stuffing, link spamming, etc. Black hat tactics aim to game the algorithm blatantly and can get your site penalised or even banned from search results. They’re the antithesis of what search engines want.

Why bring this up now? Because all this talk of “aligning with search engines” and “reducing their workload by being genuinely useful” is essentially the ethos of white hat SEO. When you do white hat, you’re working with the search engine, not against it. You’re helping Google achieve its goal (happy users) by making your site awesome. It’s a long-term strategy that builds real equity.

Grey hat, on the other hand, might get you some quick wins, but you’re ultimately working against what the search engine is trying to do. You’re trying to trick Google into ranking you higher than your content deserves by some metric. That introduces a dilemma for search engines: sometimes grey hat sites do slip through and rank well (at least for a while), which means Google has to continually adapt to sniff them out. That’s why we have algorithm updates (like Penguin for link spam, Panda for thin content, etc.) – Google investing effort to counter these shortcuts. Every time they succeed, a grey hat SEO’s life gets harder.

As we move into an AI-driven search era, the stakes for white hat vs grey/black hat are even clearer:

AI and Strict Source Selection: When an AI is picking answers and citing sources, it’s not going to list 10 results – it might list 2 or 3 at most. There’s even less room for mediocre or suspect content. If you’ve gotten by with grey hat tactics (say, a so-so site propped up by bought links), you might still rank in a traditional SERP today. But an AI likely won’t choose you as a trusted source to quote. It’ll prefer a site that has demonstrable expertise and trustworthiness. In essence, AI could widen the gap between truly authoritative sites and the pretenders.
White Hat = Long-Term Survival: By focusing on quality and user satisfaction (white hat), you’re building something that can stand the test of time and algorithm changes. You’re effectively future-proofing. Google’s algorithms can change all they want – if your strategy has been “be the best answer,” you’ll always be on the right side of those changes. We saw this with major updates: sites with solid content and user focus generally fare better than sites that tried to game the system. This pattern will continue.
Grey/Black Hat = Increasing Risk: Tactics like link schemes, doorway pages, etc., might still work here and there, but the window is closing. Every year, Google gets better at ignoring or punishing these tactics. And with AI, user expectations for quality are higher too (imagine someone used to getting a direct AI answer; if they click a result and find garbage content, they’ll bounce immediately). So even if you trick the algorithm into a ranking, users might not stick around – and user behavior feeds back into the system. It’s just not sustainable.

In short, the best way to “optimise” for search engines is to not try to cheat them. Optimise to help them. That’s the irony that many folks new to SEO don’t realise: the “secret” to SEO is that there’s no secret hack – it’s about doing the fundamental things really well.

If you’ve heard terms like “white hat,” “grey hat,” and “black hat” before, now you know how they connect to everything we’ve discussed. White hat SEO is basically the practice of reducing the cost of information retrieval for search engines through legitimate means – great content, solid site structures, etc. Grey hat might reduce cost in one area (e.g., you boost PageRank with some paid links so Google initially finds you authoritative), but it introduces costs elsewhere (Google then has to figure out if your links are real or paid, and your content might not live up to the ranking). Black hat just creates chaos and tonnes of cost for search engines (and usually ends badly for the site).

As we stand today, and looking to the future, it’s clear that sticking with white hat principles is not only the ethical choice but the smart business choice. It builds real value. And whether a human or an AI is evaluating your site, real value is something that will eventually get recognized and rewarded.

Conclusion: SEO’s True Essence and Your Path Forward

When we strip away all the buzzwords, tactics, and algorithms, the core truth of SEO becomes clear: SEO is about helping search engines connect people with the information they’re looking for, as efficiently as possible. It’s a partnership. You, the website owner or content creator, do everything you can to create an excellent, easily accessible repository of knowledge or solutions. The search engine, in turn, recognizes your efforts and elevates your content to the audience that needs it.

If you keep this philosophy in mind, it guides every SEO decision you make:

- Is my website structured in a way that makes it easy for Google to find and index my content?
- Is my content written and formatted in a way that makes it easy for Google (and users) to understand?
- Am I covering my topic deeply enough that Google sees me as a trusted authority on it?
- Am I keeping up with what users really want (their intent) so that Google sees my pages satisfying queries effectively?
- Am I earning my site’s reputation through quality content and outreach, rather than trying to manipulate it?

By focusing on these questions, you naturally align with what the search engines want. And when you align with the search engines’ goals, magic happens: you get better rankings, more consistent traffic, and fewer worries about the next algorithm update.

It’s also a more enjoyable and sustainable way to do SEO. Instead of chasing algorithm loopholes or living in fear of penalties, you’re building a brand and content that you’re proud of, that truly helps people. That positive effort tends to pay dividends in the long run. You’ll likely find that as you create better content and user experiences, you attract not just search traffic but also direct traffic, referrals, and word-of-mouth. Good SEO isn’t an isolated thing – it goes hand-in-hand with good digital marketing and good business.

So, the next time someone says, “SEO is just about getting to #1 on Google,” you can smile and explain that, actually, SEO is about a lot more. It’s about understanding how search works and what users need, then crafting your online presence to be the best answer to those needs while making it easy for search engines to see it. Rankings and traffic are the rewards for doing this right, not the goal in and of themselves.

In the end, the sites that win (and keep winning) are those that embrace the true spirit of SEO: Serve the user, and in doing so, serve the search engine. If you remember nothing else, remember that. Everything else will fall into place – no, really.