The 5 Components of SEO That Never Change
There are approximately 5 components of SEO that always stay the same, despite Google algorithm updates and trends. Knowing and understanding these concepts is crucial to the success of your online presence.
But first, it’s important to understand exactly what SEO is.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Simply put, SEO enhances your online presence through search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo!, where potential customers search for keywords related to your business.
For instance, if you’re a uniform supplier, you would need to optimize your website and its content for keywords related to your business, such as “uniform rental service” or more specific ones like “food processing uniform rental.”
These keywords will help guide your online marketing strategy and ultimately lead to higher search engine rankings and conversion rates when done right.
Below, we outline the 5 components of SEO in detail. Once you nail these components down, you’ll steadily see an increase in quality website traffic and leads.
1. Helpful and Informative Content
Starting with a website is the first step in establishing an online presence.
However, it’s not enough just to have a website. Your business’ website must be optimized and crawlable by search engines to see any real results.
Back when SEO first took off in the late 2000s, it was common practice to engage in “keyword stuffing.” This was when websites loaded pages with excessive keywords to manipulate search rankings.
Today, search engines and AI systems like Google’s AI Overviews have become much smarter. Modern algorithms now focus on helpful, informative, and well-structured content that answers user intent clearly. “Readability” remains a factor of your SEO score, but now it’s also about AI readability—how clearly your content can be interpreted by both people and AI models scanning for relevance.
Good content starts with understanding what people actually need. When you focus on helping your audience by answering questions, solving problems, and sharing useful insights, your SEO improves naturally. Blogs, videos, and other resources built around real experience perform better because they connect with people. That same authenticity also helps your content show up in AI-generated summaries, which favor clear, trustworthy information that puts the reader first.
If you’re curious about how AI is changing content visibility, check out our recent session, AI, SEO & the Google Guessing Game: What B2B Marketers Need to Know Now. It explores how AI Overviews, branded search, and content updates can keep your business visible in the evolving search landscape.
2. Meta Description and SEO Title
Despite what the name implies, meta descriptions are simple. A meta description is the short text that appears in the search results beneath your page title and URL.
An SEO title, on the other hand, is the clickable headline that appears in search results.
When your meta description is compelling, concise, and includes a clear call-to-action (CTA), it can significantly improve your click-through rate. Even if your ranking doesn’t change, you can expect more visitors to your website.
The same goes for SEO titles. They should feature your target keyword near the beginning, stay under 60 characters, and balance readability with clarity. The right mix helps searchers understand what your page offers instantly.
3. Internal Links Integration, External Link Building and Backlinks
How many times have you read a blog that included hyperlinks to other relevant pages on the same website? More likely than not, you clicked on a few to keep reading.
Internal Links
Internal links are hyperlinks that point to other pages on the same website. They help search engines understand the most important pages on your website.
Additionally, search engines consider pages with lots of relevant internal links to be more valuable than those with fewer links. Internal link integration is a simple way to improve traffic and time spent on your website.
External Links
On the other hand, external links are hyperlinks that point to web pages outside of your domain. At first glance, using external links seems counterintuitive. “Why would I link to websites other than my own?”
The answer is this: providing your readers with outside references enhances your website’s authority and credibility, which search engines use to determine the quality of your content.
Backlinks
In the SEO world, backlinks are when another website links back to your website. The quality of a backlink depends on the online reputation and authority score of the original website.
Backlinks are important because they signal to Google that other websites find your content valuable. To achieve this, you need to develop a backlink portfolio.
While this takes time (and continuous outreach), this is an extremely important factor of your linking strategy for SEO.
4. Google My Business and Reviews
Location-based SEO, or local SEO, is the process of optimizing your website to appear for your target location. Search engines, specifically Google, are getting better at displaying location-based search results on more generic search inquiries.
Think of how many times you searched “restaurants near me” for dinner suggestions. Google knows to display results according to your location.
This does, however, have its limitations. For example, Google will return mostly national results for search terms such as “marketing agency.”
This is why it’s important to target location-specific keywords, such as ones that target your:
- City
- State
- General Area
For instance, for your uniform rental company located in Battle Creek, Michigan, you can create content optimized for keywords such as “uniform rentals in Michigan” or “Michigan uniform rentals”.
Additionally, Google My Business (GMB) is a free, easy tool for businesses to manage their Google presence, including on Search and Maps.
To optimize your GMB profile, make sure the following is accurate:
- Your business hours
- Contact information
- Location(s)
- Area(s) your business serves
- Your service and/or product offerings
This is a simple and powerful way to optimize your local online presence while avoiding falling into the “keyword stuffing” trap.
5. User Experience
In recent years, SEO has expanded beyond keywords and backlinks to include user experience (UX).
If your website is slow, cluttered, or difficult to navigate, Google considers it lower quality. Factors like mobile-friendliness, loading speed, and accessibility now influence your rankings.
A smooth user experience helps visitors stay on your site longer and encourages them to convert. The easier it is to find information and complete actions, the stronger your SEO performance will be.
As AI continues to influence search, websites that are intuitive and user-focused are more likely to be surfaced in AI summaries and recommendations. That’s why user experience now matters to both people and search engines. A clear, easy-to-navigate website tells visitors and the algorithms deciding what to show them that your business can be trusted.
5 Components of SEO That Never Go Out of Style
When you implement your SEO strategy with these 5 components in mind, you’ll see steady improvements in your website traffic and lead quality.
While search engine marketing (SEM, also known as “paid advertising”) is important, the foundations of solid organic SEO are just as crucial—and they continue to evolve alongside AI. The principles of helpful content, strategic linking, local relevance, and user experience remain constant, even as tools and search engines change.
