So You Thought SEO Was Easy

SEO sounds simple enough at first. Pick some keywords, put them on your website, wait for Google to send you traffic.

Then you start peeling back the layers.

Turns out, SEO isn't one thing. It's about ten different disciplines crammed under one umbrella. Each one has its own tools, its own strategies, and its own learning curve. We're talking 10 major categories and 25 subcategories, all playing a role in whether or not your site shows up when someone searches for what you do.

That's usually when the panic sets in.

But here's the thing. You don't need to master all of it. You just need to understand what's out there so you can spend your time on the parts that actually move the needle for your business.

So today, we're breaking it all down. Every category. Every subcategory. What it means, why it matters, and where you should actually start.

Today's advice

Stop trying to "do SEO" all at once. Pick the 2-3 categories that matter most for your business and focus there.

Let me walk you through all ten categories so you know what you're actually looking at.

Technical SEO

This is the stuff happening behind the scenes. You might never see it, but Google sure does.

Site Structure is how your pages are organized. Think of it like the layout of a physical store. If everything's in the right place, people find what they need. If it's a mess, they leave. Same goes for Google.

Crawlability is whether Google can even access your pages in the first place. If something's blocking it from reading your site (and there are a bunch of things that can do this), nothing else you do is going to matter. You're invisible.

Core Web Vitals is Google's way of measuring how your site performs. Page load speed, visual stability, responsiveness, etc. And yes, Google uses it as a ranking factor.

But here's my honest take on this one: Core Web Vitals is a comparison benchmark, not a real-world test. Your actual internet connection or device speed has way more impact on how a site feels to use than these scores suggest. This is a Google invention that has made a lot of SEO consultants rich. Should you be aware of it? Sure. Should you lose sleep over it? Probably not. Focus on making your site fast and functional for real people, and you'll be fine.

Structured Data is code you add to help Google understand exactly what your content is about. Instead of making Google guess whether a page is a product listing, a service page, or a local business, you spell it out. This is how businesses get those rich results in Google – the ones with star ratings, pricing info, FAQ dropdowns, etc.

If your technical foundation is off, everything else you build on top of it is shaky.

On Page SEO

This is what most people think of when they hear "SEO." It's the work you do on each page of your site to help it rank.

Keyword Research is figuring out what your potential customers are actually typing into Google. Not what you think they're searching for. What they're really searching for. There's almost always a gap, and that gap is where you're losing people.

I talked about this recently – too many businesses write their websites based on what sounds good to them, not what their audience is actually looking for. If the words on your page don't match how people search, Google won't connect the two.

Search Intent is about understanding why someone is searching. Someone Googling "best CRM for small business" wants to compare options. Someone Googling "HubSpot login" already made their decision. If your page doesn't match the intent behind the search, it won't rank. Period.

Title Tags are the clickable headlines in search results. They're one of the first things Google looks at, and one of the first things a person sees before deciding whether or not to click. A weak title tag can kill an otherwise solid page.

Internal Linking is how you connect your own pages to each other. Every time you link from one page on your site to another, you're helping Google understand what's important and how everything relates. It also keeps visitors moving through your site instead of bouncing after one page.

Off-Page SEO

This is everything happening away from your website that still affects how you rank.

Link Building is getting other websites to link to yours. When a credible site links to your content, Google sees that as a vote of confidence. The more quality votes you get, the more authority your site builds over time. But you can't fake this or force it. It takes time, good content, and real relationships.

Digital PR is earning coverage and mentions from publications, journalists, and online media. Think of it as the modern version of getting your name in the paper – except it also sends trust signals to Google.

Brand Mentions are when people talk about your business online, even without linking to your site. Google is getting better at picking up on this. The more your name shows up in relevant conversations, the more Google connects your brand with your industry.

This is one of those categories where you don't have full control, and that's what makes it hard. You earn it over time. You don't just check a box.

Content SEO

This is where your content strategy and search strategy meet.

Topical Authority means becoming the go-to resource on a specific subject. Not by writing one blog post and hoping for the best, but by covering a topic from every angle. Google rewards depth. If you write one article about email marketing, that's fine. If you write fifteen covering every subtopic within it, Google starts seeing you as the authority.

Content Clusters are how you organize that depth. You build one main page around a broad topic (your "pillar"), then create supporting articles that go deeper on related subtopics and link them all together. It gives both Google and your readers a clear path to follow.

Programmatic SEO is using templates and data to create large numbers of pages at scale. Like a company that builds a unique landing page for every city they serve. This is more advanced, and most small businesses don't need to worry about it right now.

Local SEO

If you serve customers in a specific area, this is non-negotiable.

Google Business Profile is the listing that shows up when someone searches for your business or your category near them. Hours, location, reviews, photos – it's all there. And these results are hyper local and hyper specific. Someone searching "accountant near me" from two different zip codes can get completely different results.

If you haven't claimed your profile, that's step one. But just claiming it isn't enough. You need every piece of data up to date. Hours, services, photos, descriptions – all of it. You should be posting new content to your profile at minimum once a week. And every service or product you list should link to a specific landing page on your site. Not your homepage. Not a generic "services" page. A dedicated page for that specific thing. Generic doesn't cut it here.

Local Citations are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number across online directories and review sites. Yelp, BBB, industry-specific listings, etc. The key here is consistency. If your address shows up slightly different on three different sites, it confuses Google and can hurt your rankings.

E-commerce SEO

If you sell products online, this is your world.

Product Page SEO is making sure each product page is optimized for the terms people use when they're ready to buy. That means product titles, descriptions, images, and structured data all need attention. Most e-commerce sites have hundreds or thousands of these pages, and most of them are under-optimized.

Category Page SEO is about getting your collection pages to rank for broader terms. When someone searches "men's running shoes," they don't want to see one shoe. They want options. Your category pages are often the highest-traffic pages on an e-commerce site, and they deserve just as much work as your product pages.

International SEO

This only matters if you're targeting customers in multiple countries or languages.

Hreflang tags tell Google which version of your page is meant for which language and region. Without them, your French customers might see your English site, or your Canadian pages might compete with your US pages for the same keywords.

Geo Targeting makes sure the right content shows up in the right country. Country-specific domains, server locations, content localization – that kind of thing.

If you're running a local or national business, you can skip this one entirely. But if you sell internationally, this is worth paying attention to.

Enterprise SEO

This is SEO at scale. It mostly applies to large organizations managing thousands of pages.

Automation is building systems to handle SEO tasks across massive websites without doing everything by hand. Automated audits, templated meta tags, bulk redirects, and so on.

Governance is making sure everyone across a large team follows the same SEO standards. When multiple departments are publishing content, it's easy for one team to accidentally undo what another just spent months building.

Most small and mid-size businesses won't need to think about this. But if you're managing a site with hundreds of pages, some of these ideas start to matter.

AI SEO

This is the newest category, and it's changing the fastest.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is about making sure your content shows up in AI-generated answers – not just traditional search results. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI Overview a question and it pulls from your content, that's GEO at work.

LLM Visibility is whether AI models can find and reference your content at all. It's still evolving, but the basics are the same things that have always worked: clear, well-structured content that actually helps people.

I saw this firsthand when Vervology's content started appearing in Google's AI Overviews. We didn't do anything special for it. We just answered the real questions our audience was asking, and Google's AI picked it up. You can do the same thing.

Analytics

None of the above matters if you can't see what's working.

Google Analytics tracks who visits your site, where they came from, what pages they viewed, and whether they took any action. It's important to have, but a word of caution here: Google Analytics is not the complete picture. The data you see is an extrapolation, not a perfect record of every visit. It's directional, not absolute. Use it to spot trends and patterns, but don't treat every number like gospel.

Search Console shows you which search queries bring people to your site, which pages Google has indexed, and where it's finding errors. It's the closest thing you have to a direct conversation with Google about how they see your site.

If you don't have both of these set up, that's your first move. Before anything else on this list.

Why this matters

You'll stop burning time on the wrong stuff.

Most business owners I work with feel like they should be "doing SEO" but have no idea where to start. So they either try to do everything at once, or they focus on whatever the last article they read told them to focus on.

That's how you end up spending three months building backlinks when your real problem is that Google can't even crawl half your pages. Or writing blog posts for months without realizing your title tags are garbage and nobody's clicking through from search results.

When you understand the full picture, you can make better decisions about where your effort goes. You don't need to check every box on the list. You need to check the right ones.

You'll set expectations that actually make sense.

I say this all the time: SEO isn't a one-time thing or a bolt-on plugin. It is a fundamental way of publishing content, and it is ongoing. It never stops.

Knowing how many moving parts are involved helps you plan for it, budget for it, and stop expecting overnight results. The businesses that win at SEO are the ones that stay consistent. They pick their lane, do the work, and keep showing up.

Here's how to start

Ask yourself one question: which 2-3 of these categories are most relevant to my business right now?

If you're a local business, start with Local SEO and On Page SEO. Get your Google Business Profile fully filled out and actively maintained, link every service to a dedicated landing page, make sure your site content matches the way real people search, and keep your pages fresh.

If you run an online store, start with E-commerce SEO and Technical SEO. Optimize your product and category pages, and make sure your site loads fast and Google can crawl it without issues.

If you're a service-based business that relies on content to attract leads, start with Content SEO and Analytics. Build topical authority around the subjects your audience cares about, measure what's working, and do more of that.

That's it. You don't need to master all ten categories to see results. You just need the right two or three working for you, and then you build from there.

SEO is a lot. No one's pretending otherwise. But it doesn't have to be overwhelming if you know where to focus.

And if you're not sure where to start, just ask. That's what I'm here for.

Best

Jono

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