SEO FAQs for Beginners: 30+ Answered (2026 Update)

SEO can feel confusing at first. Search engines keep changing, rankings go up and down, and there’s a lot of noise on SEO online.

That’s why this SEO FAQs page was created.

This guide answers the most common SEO questions beginners ask, using simple words and real explanations. You’ll learn how SEO works in 2026, how long it takes for SEO to see results, and what actually helps your website rank higher on Google in 2026.

Tip: If you’re new to SEO, bookmark this page. It’s updated regularly with new SEO questions and answers.

TL;DR – What You’ll Learn From This SEO FAQs Page?

• What SEO is and how search engines work
• GEO optimization and AI trends in SEO
• On-page, off-page, and technical SEO basics
• Common SEO mistakes to avoid
• Latest SEO best practices and more

Top 30+ SEO FAQs For 2026: Frequently Asked Questions Answers About SEO

SEO FAQs for 2026

Let’s start with the most common SEO questions people are asking in 2026.

What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) in SEO?

GEO focuses on optimizing your website content so it gets picked by AI platforms like Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.

How is SEO different in 2026 compared to previous years?

SEO in 2026 is less about keyword optimization and more about visibility in AI answers. Your content should provide direct answers to the users’ queries to get picked up by AI models.

Does AI-generated content rank well on Google in 2026?

Yes, but only if it’s valuable to the users and provides accurate information. AI content still needs human expertise to verify the data and provide helpful information on any topic.

Are keywords still important for SEO in 2026?

Keywords still matter, but not as much as they used to be. In 2026, the intent and context of the page matter more. Search engines like Google understand topics, not just exact keyword phrases.

How does Google’s AI Mode affect organic traffic?

AI Mode answers most users’ questions directly on search pages, leading to fewer clicks to websites. To increase website traffic, you need to provide in-depth and unique content that AI summaries cannot fully replace.

What are the most important ranking factors in 2026?

Helpful content, topical authority, user experience, and backlinks matter most.

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Basic SEO FAQs

Here are some of the most common beginner questions, helping you understand how search engines work, types of SEO, and more.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of improving a website’s rankings so that it appears higher in search engine results like Google. It helps your pages get more visibility, attract the right visitors, and generate organic (free) traffic from search results.

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What are the types of SEO?

There are 3 main types of SEO: white hat SEO (content marketing, keyword research, mobile optimization), black hat SEO (keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text), and grey hat SEO (buying links, spun content, high keyword density).

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What is a sitemap?

A sitemap helps Google find and index your website pages. It lists essential URLs you want search engines to crawl (blog posts, pages, categories) and is usually created using an XML sitemap generator or a WordPress plugin.

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How can I index my new website in Google search really quickly?

You can speed up indexing in the following ways;

1. Google Search Console: Sign up, add your website, and submit your URLs using the URL Inspection Tool.
2. Sitemap: Create a sitemap and submit it in Google Search Console under the Sitemaps section.
3. Robots.txt: Ensure your robots.txt file allows search engines to crawl your site.

We wrote a detailed post on how to index your new site on Google.

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How much does SEO cost?

On average, an SEO expert charges $100 per hour. It can go all the way up to several thousand dollars, depending on the SEO expert or agency you choose. That means SEO usually costs you $500 to $5000 or even more every month.

You can invest in SEO for things like link building, on-page optimization, competitor analysis, paid advertising, etc, depending on the type of your business or website.

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How long does it usually take to get results from SEO?

It usually takes 6 to 8 months (or at least 1 year if you’re entering into a competitive industry) to start getting results, such as search visitors, leads, and sales, to your sites from search engines like Google.

You’ll be getting considerably better results as you continue doing SEO for a long time, when compared to short-term results. That means whatever the search traffic that you get to your site in the first 6 months will be much lower when compared to the next 6 months, and so on.

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What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding search terms for your website to attract more visitors from search engines like Google.

There’s no short answer. In fact, we wrote an in-depth article on doing keyword research that you can refer to if you want to know more about it. You can use tools like keywordtool.io for quick keyword research.

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What is on-page SEO?

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your website’s individual pages to get higher rankings on Google. On-page SEO elements usually include things like;

• Title tag
• Meta description
• Image alt tags
• URL
• H2, H3 subheading tags and so on

If you’re wondering about how to do better on-page SEO to get higher rankings on Google, here’s an excellent on-page SEO tutorial for you.

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What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO is the process of improving your website’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page) results by using techniques like link building, brand mentions etc. Off-page SEO generally include things like:

• Building links
• Social media shares
• Brand mentions
• Email outreach etc

To put it simply, on-page SEO happens inside of your website, whereas off-page SEO happens outside of your website.

If you’re looking for a simple tutorial on off-page SEO for beginners, check out this post.

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What is link building?

Link Building is the process of acquiring backlinks from other websites, forums, blogs, and online journals to your site. This practice aims to increase your site’s authority and improve its visibility in search engine results. A strong backlink profile can enhance your website’s credibility, driving more organic traffic.

Link building is essential if you want to get better search rankings for the keywords you are targeting. There are a ton of link-building strategies out there which include;

• Guest posting
• Blog commenting
• Video marketing
• Infographics
• Guestographics
• Skyscraper technique
• Editorial links
• Broken link building and the list goes on

Here’s a detailed link-building strategy that you can use to get a higher ranking for niche sites and new websites.

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What is technical SEO, and how does it help?

Technical SEO mostly deals with how search engine crawlers look at your site. So it basically involves finding and fixing all your website technical-related issues, such as crawling issues, no sitemaps, images with missing alt tags, 404 error pages, etc.

If you find and fix your site issues using SEO techniques like site audit, you can easily get better search rankings and it helps you increase your technical SEO with ease.

Here’s an ultimate guide on technical SEO that you must check out to increase your overall rankings and visibility to your sites on Google search.

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What are the best SEO tools?

Here are some of the best SEO tools that we use (or already used) and highly recommend.

• Semrush: Our primary SEO tool for keyword research, backlink analysis, and competitor insights, costing around $120/month and worth it.
• WordPress SEO by Yoast: A highly recommended free plugin that helps optimize your content for better search rankings, essential for increasing traffic.
• Moz tools: Created by SEO expert Rand Fishkin, these tools assist with keyword research, link building, and competitor analysis.
• Google PageSpeed Tool: A free tool that analyzes website speed and offers recommendations for optimization.
• Google Keyword Planner: A popular free tool for keyword research, providing metrics like monthly volume and CPC costs, though less accurate than premium tools.

Here’s a great compilation of free SEO tools you can use to skyrocket your website search traffic.

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What is Google TrustRank?

Google TrustRank tells you how trustworthy a website is. It basically determines the overall backlink profile of a site. There’s no accurate tool to find out the TrustRank of a site but MozTrust from Moz gives you a better understanding about how trustworthy a site is.

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What are backlinks?

Backlinks, also known as inbound links or external links, are links from one website to another. They play a crucial role in search engine optimization (SEO) for several reasons:

You’ll find a variety of technical words used for backlinks which are mainly;

• Internal links (which contain links of your own site)
• External links (which contain links from other sites)

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How to protect my site from being hacked?

To protect your site from being hacked, follow these tips:

• Keep Software Updated: Regularly update your CMS, plugins, and themes.
• Use Strong Passwords: Create complex passwords and change them often.
• Implement HTTPS: Use an SSL certificate to encrypt data.
• Limit User Access: Grant access only to necessary personnel.
• Backup Regularly: Schedule frequent backups of your site.
• Install Security Plugins: Use security plugins to monitor threats.
• Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF): Block malicious traffic.
• Monitor Your Site: Check for suspicious activity and set alerts.

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My website search traffic is going down. How can I recover from it?

There are a ton of reasons for website traffic drop, here are some of them.

• Your website is hit by Google penalization (such as Panda, and Penguin updates)
• You did something terribly wrong with your website’s SEO (technical SEO mostly)
• You changed your website design (it does affect, that’s why authority sites don’t change their web design even after years)
• You’re building toxic backlinks or linking to quickly
• Your website is full of thin content and so on

Start creating high-quality content more frequently and use effective link-building strategies such as guest posting, and blogger outreach to build quality links to improve your overall website’s SEO.

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How does Google search work?

Google has a ton of ranking factors (over 200 factors) that determine the quality of a web page. Based on your search queries, Google shows up only the best results which have informative content.

If you want to know more about how Google search really works, you may want to check this out.

Here’s a great illustration that helps you quickly understand how search engines like Google usually work.

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What are Google’s major algorithms?

Although there are a ton of algorithms used by Google, but here are a few of the major Google algorithms that you should be aware of.

• PageRank: Measures backlink quality and quantity.
• Panda: Targets low-quality content.
• Penguin: Fights spam and manipulative link-building.
• Hummingbird: Understands search query context.
• Pigeon: Enhances local search results.
• Mobile-Friendly Update: Prioritizes mobile-optimized sites.
• RankBrain: Uses machine learning for complex queries.
• BERT: Improves understanding of language nuances.
• Core Web Vitals: Evaluate user experience metrics.
• Spam Updates: Regularly combats spammy practices.

So if you want to stay safe from getting penalized by any of the above-mentioned Google major algorithms, make sure to avoid the mistakes mentioned above.

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How can I increase my search engine traffic?

Here are a few tips to increase your search engine traffic to your sites in 2026 and beyond.

• Optimize for SEO: Use relevant keywords in content, titles, and meta descriptions.
• Proper Keyword Research: Use SEO tools that offer comprehensive keyword research features.
• Create High-Quality Content: Publish valuable and engaging content regularly.
• Improve User Experience: Ensure your site is mobile-friendly and loads quickly.
• Build Backlinks: Acquire quality links from reputable websites.
• Utilize Social Media: Share content and engage with your audience.

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What is domain authority and how can I increase it?

Domain authority is a metric from Moz tools that is highly used by bloggers and SEOs all over the world to find the authority of a website. It is also known as DA (Domain Authority).

It basically analyses your backlinks along with the toxic links such as spam links, redirection links, irrelevant links etc to give your site is domain authority which ranges from zero to 100. 100 being the highest domain authority which only a few websites have such as Google, Facebook, etc.

If you are looking to increase your website’s domain authority, here are a few quick tips that work well for you.

• Start link building. Try to get as many quality backlinks as possible from various domain names instead of getting too many links from a single website source. Domain authority usually gets updated every single month so the higher quality links you get within a month the sooner you will get higher DA to your sites.
• Domain authority is also about increasing your website User Experience (UX), that means you need to work on improving your website design along with navigation such as menu, sidebar, footer section etc. The faster your website loads the better chances will have to increase your overall performance along with DA.

Here’s a great resource on increasing your website’s DA easily.

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Does website speed affect search engine rankings?

Yes, your website speed and loading times impact your overall search engine rankings of your website. In fact, website speed is one of the most important ranking factors in Google search.

So if you are looking to increase your overall search engine rankings of your website, make sure to increase your overall website speed.

• First things first: Go to Pingdom tools and check your website speed and performance. It’s free and easy to use, so go check out your speed. If you website is taking more than 3 seconds to load, you need to work on increasing your performance as early as possible.
• Get managed WordPress hosting for your website as most of dedicated hosting services use SSD storage along with CDN which ultimately increases your overall website speed and performance when compared to shared hosting plans.
• Use less plugins on your WordPress sites as plugins takes too much of bandwidth and storage of your website hosting storage. As a rule of thumb, limit your plugin usage to 15 or below.

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What are the major Google ranking factors?

There are over 200 ranking factors that Google uses to rank a web page on Google search.

Here are some of the major Google ranking factors considered by Google to determine the quality of a web page.

• Content quality
• Backlinks
• Website speed
• Mobile-first indexing (make sure to use responsive design)
• Social signals
• Domain authority
• https (secure connections over http)
• User experience (how easy your site is to navigate and get crawled by search crawlers)

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What is competitor research?

Competitor research involves in analyzing your competitor’s websites to increase your odds of getting more search traffic, backlinks and sales to your site. Competitor research is quite common in all industries and it basically involves in:

• Finding and analyzing top content
• Backlink analysis
• Estimating traffic of your competitor sites
• Knowing their target audience
• Finding how they are making money and sales
• And so on

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Does social media impact my Google search rankings?

The short answer is YES. While social media is not a ranking factor in Google but it plays a key role in calculating the user engagement of your site (social sharing, comments etc).

If you create highly informative content and if it goes really popular on social media, you can easily get higher rankings for that page in Google search. That’s why most authority sites with thousands of social shares usually get quick rankings in the first page of Google search results.

Social media not only helps you with SEO but also increases your brand awareness, helpful for promotion, getting more target audience to your sites etc. So don’t ignore social media if you want to get better results in the long run.

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How to track my keyword positions on Google?

Keyword tracking is one of the most essential things you need to if you want to improve your SEO and search rankings. Tracking positions can be done in a lot of ways. You can do it manually by searching for your targeted keywords on Google or you can use keyword tracking tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs, SpyFu, etc to easily track all of your keywords in one place.

Always make sure to track your keyboard positions to find out how your best-performing keywords rank on Google search so you can work on improving them accordingly to bring more distance from search engines like Google.

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28. How to find and fix my website issues?

You can use tools like Semrush to easily find and fix all your website’s technical-related SEO issues. It basically gives you a website health score (0 to 100, 100 being the best without any errors or warnings) so you can easily work on fixing all your website errors to get better rankings on Google search.

Also make sure to conduct frequent site audits of your website in order to find and fix all the technical and SEO related issues that your site might have so you can eliminate all the issues that are preventing you from getting bored search engine traffic to your website.

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Is investing money in SEO worth it?

First things first: spending on SEO is not an expense, it’s an investment that gets you a 10-fold or 100-fold return if done right. That’s why so many agencies and entrepreneurs are spending millions of dollars every month on SEO experts and agencies to bring more value from search engines to their products, services, and websites.

Whether you’re writing a book and looking for better ways to promote it or running a small business to generate better leads, You need the help of search engines. Here’s where SEO comes into handy.

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What is an SEO strategy and how to create it?

An SEO strategy involves in finding and using the PROVEN tactics and techniques to bring more visitors from search engines like Google to your sites. An SEO strategy not only helps you increase your search traffic but also your website sales, which is why it’s so essential for every business and website to thrive online.

If you’re wondering about how to create an SEO strategy to increase your search traffic, rankings and sales, here are few tips.

• Firstly, define your target audience. Without knowing who you’re serving through your websites, products or services – it’s impossible to layout a strategy that works well for your business. So know your target audience along with their wants and needs.
• Do a thorough keyword research
• Define and analyse your competition
• Tweak your SEO strategy as you go

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What are long tail keywords?

Long tail keywords usually contain 4 or more keywords within them and help increase your search engine traffic even with minimal effort (especially useful for new websites).

For example, “top 51 SEO FAQs for beginners” is a 6-word long tail keyword whereas SEO FAQs is a 2-word short tail keyword and is really hard to rank for when you’ve a new site.

Long tail keywords contribute to 70% of overall search engine traffic.

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What are Google search metrics?

Here are some of the Google search metrics that are highly useful when you’re doing keyword research to increase your search traffic or sales.

• Search volume
• Number of results for the keyword
• AdWords competition
• Keyword difficulty aka organic search difficulty
• Average CPC

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What is SERP in SEO?

A search engine results page (SERP) is a page displayed by search engines like Google for user queries. First SERP shows you the first 10 results of the first page and the second SERP shows you the results between 11 to 20 (in 2nd page) and so on.

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What is local SEO?

Local SEO simply means that you’re optimizing your website, business or products to generate traffic from location-based searching.

For example, if you’re running a small business in New York, you can do local SEO for your business to only target local customers from New York. This is highly useful if you want to ONLY attract a specific demographic audience to buy or research about your products or services.

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What is mobile SEO?

Mobile SEO is all about turning your website pages into mobile responsive, which means, giving a better experience to your users no matter what device they are using to browse information from your website (whether a smartphone, tablet or PC).

Mobile SEO is only increasing and if your site is not yet optimized for mobile, you should act on as soon as possible. If you’re using WordPress, you can install WPTouch (a free plugin, which creates a mobile theme for mobile visitors to your WordPress website).

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What is voice search?

Voice search uses a speech recognition technology that allows anyone to search by saying terms aloud instead of typing them on Google search. It is becoming more popular with the rapid growth of smartphones.

Write like your target audience talk. In voice search, instead of focusing on keywords, focus on your audience and find out how they talk so you can use the exact same words within your content. That way, they will find your site through voice typing on Google search.

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What is Google AdSense?

AdSense is a publishing program run by Google that helps publishers, such as marketers, bloggers, and website owners, earn money by showing AdSense ads on a wide range of topics.

AdSense ads include text, images, video ads, and so on, and they help publishers earn more money from clicks.

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What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics can be considered as a website tracking platform where you can get all your website’s tracking information such as website traffic, top content, bounce rate, audience demographics, active users on your site and so on.

Make sure to sign up to Google Analytics if you’re running a website so you can easily find out your website traffic and audience behaviour which will be helpful for you to create better content and products for them in the long run.

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What is the difference between dofollow and nofollow links?

Dofollow links tell search engine crawlers to follow the links and nofollow links work the exact opposite which are not followed by Google search crawlers.

Dofollow links are what pass link juice from one website to another website and are considered as quality links which are also helpful for increasing your search engine traffic and rankings.

Nofollow links are widely used for social media links, affiliates and other product links. These links don’t contain any search value so there’s no point in spending most of your time or money on getting such links.

Read: Dofollow vs Nofollow Links: How they help with Rankings

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What is robots.txt?

It is a text file that can be used to tell search engines which pages of your website crawl and which pages to avoid. It basically gives you full control over how your website should be crawled by search engine bots. You don’t need to make changes to this file unless you know what you’re doing (so avoid making changes if you’re a beginner).

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What is 301 redirect?

301 redirects are used for permanent URL redirection. This is especially used when you delete some of unwanted pages from your website and to avoid broken link issues, you can use 301 redirects to redirect your visitors to some other working (or active) pages on your site.

You can use plugins such as Redirection (free WordPress plugin) to easily send redirecting requests to another page on your site or elsewhere on the web.

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Final Thoughts

As I said earlier, SEO involves in too many things from keyword research to backlink analysis to competitor research. So if you want to get ahead in SEO, make sure to learn and practice the right SEO tactics so you can bring more visitors from search engines to your sites to increase your website sales.

We hope that you find this top SEO FAQs post informative, if yes, please share it with others and leave a comment below sharing your thoughts.