SEO Marketing: A Complete Guide for 2026

If you have an online business, you’ve probably been told to make SEO marketing part of promoting your website. After all, there are more than five trillion searches on Google every year. Each search represents a customer looking for what you sell or information you can provide. 

For a business owner, attracting this group of potential customers is the difference between stagnation and growth.

To rank highly in search results on Google and other major search engines, your website’s content needs to match a potential visitor’s intent and appear as an authoritative source on the topic.

Here, learn about the different types of SEO marketing and how to improve organic search results for your online store or website.

What is SEO marketing?

Search engine optimization (SEO) marketing is the process of improving a website’s eligibility to appear in organic search. It involves tuning your content quality and technical SEO health to prove you’re the best answer to a user’s question. The goal is to land on page one for relevant searches and earn a stream of high-quality traffic that ultimately converts. 

How SEO differs from SEM

SEO focuses on earning visibility in organic, or unpaid, search results by improving on-page relevance and technical performance. Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to using paid search ads like PPC, or pay-per-click, to buy placement on search result pages and drive traffic immediately. 

Knowing the difference between SEO and SEM helps you set expectations for budget, timing, and risk. Paid search is great for generating traffic quickly for launches and promotions but can be used for ongoing campaigns as well. Organic search can become a reliable growth channel over time. 

Despite the recent turbulence in sites’ organic search rankings and traffic following Google’s rollout of AI Overviews, the data still shows organic traffic is a worthy investment. 

A 2025 survey from Conductor found that organic search accounted for 33% of overall website traffic across seven key industries, and 63% of respondents reported that AI Overviews have positively impacted organic traffic and visibility since rollout. 

Here are some ways these two practices differentiate:

• Budget and cost structure. SEM requires a budget to purchase ads on search engines, social media, and other channels. While you don’t pay to rank on search engines with SEO, it does require ongoing investment in content and technical work
• Speed to results. SEO takes longer than SEM to show results because ads show the results immediately. SEO, on the other hand, can take months or years to establish domain authority, start ranking high on search engine result pages, or SERPs, and drive traffic.
• Keyword use. An SEO expert can identify relevant keywords and create well-written, informative content that ranks highly in search engines. An SEM professional uses keyword research, but they must also know how to target the right phrases to optimize ad spend.
• Longevity. SEO can compound over time, while SEM results stop once you pause spending. 

Why is SEO marketing important?

Search is still the main way people find information on the internet. In 2025, traditional search engines accounted for 94.4% of US desktop searches, with AI search engines covering the remaining 5.6%. 

Looking past the AI hype, this means search visibility remains a viable marketing channel for most websites. Investing in SEO offers both short- and long-term benefits:

• In the short term, better rankings mean more visitors without paying for ads. 
• In the long run, you are building a foundation for content (like product pages) to continue to rank organically after paid campaigns end. 

While search is still important for connecting with customers, the way they discover you is changing. Ahrefs research found that when Google shows an AI summary, users are less likely to click links to other websites, so earning visibility and a strong brand presence matters more than ever. 

Types of SEO marketing

• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO
• Technical SEO
• Local SEO

A complete SEO strategy means leveraging multiple types of marketing to build your presence in search engines. Each type addresses a different set of ranking factors, from the words on your page to your reputation across the web. 

When you balance these four pillars, you help search engines find your website more easily and trust that you are an authority in your niche. 

1. On-page SEO

The largest bucket of SEO marketing activities, on-page SEO involves crafting your website’s content (including text, images, and videos) to ensure visitors have their search intent satisfied on the page. For search engines, the information needs to be organised in a way they can easily understand and navigate. Visitors need to understand and navigate the information as well, but have deeper needs than search engines.

Google’s systems use on-page sources like the <title> element and headings to determine how a result is understood and displayed. These changes can be made instantly and are under your control. 

Creating intentional content can also help you make a connection with your audience. 

“I would much rather have 200 people on my website that are reading content that they do appreciate and potentially subscribe to my newsletter because they see value in this content than to have 2,000 of them that just bounce after an article and will never come back to my website,” says Jeremiah Curvers, founder and CEO of mattress band Polysleep, in an episode of Shopify Masters.

Search engines look for on-page factors like topic relevance, metadata, and content helpfulness to determine the quality of your content and, in turn, where your site ranks in results pages.

Tip: Metadata is basically data about data. It signals to web crawlers to quickly determine what the page is about. Read on for examples and more context. 

Topic relevance

Web pages that rank highly in search engines contain content that closely matches users’ search intent. That means considering what searchers are looking for based on their queries and surfacing the web pages that match the best. 

For example, if the term “masks” brings up results about beauty sheet masks, it wouldn’t be the right keyword for you if you sell Halloween masks. Each intent is grouped into four categories, and relevance improves when the page’s content type aligns with that intent.

Here are a few examples of a query for each category and what you’d create to satisfy the search:

• Informational. “How to clean a Halloween mask.”Publish a how-to article with steps and FAQs.
• Navigational. “Disney character masks.” Tweak your homepage and contact page to communicate what you do.
• Commercial. “Best Halloween masks for kids.”Create a comparison page with options and guidance. 
• Transactional. “Buy Halloween masks.”Create a product or collection page with pricing, variants, shipping, and a path to purchase. 

Best practices for producing relevant SEO content include offering original information, updating facts regularly, and sticking to topics within your website’s area of expertise.

Metadata

Metadata doesn’t appear on your web pages, so it’s not visible to website visitors. Instead, meta information is contained within your pages’ HTML code, tagging and labeling content in a way that’s easily digestible for the search engine bots that crawl your site.

Keeping meta information comprehensive and updated can increase your chances of ranking. Metadata includes:

• Title tag. This is the SEO title of a web page and sometimes the same as the headline. It should include your target keywords.
• Meta descriptions. Meta descriptions summarize the contents of a web page and show up on the SERP.
• Robot tags. These tags tell search engines whether to index pages and follow links.
• Schema markup. A snippet of code meant to increase intent matches by offering additional page context, such as type, e.g., local business, product, or recipe.

As an example, Polysleep uses on-page SEO by integrating the keyword “baby mattress” throughout the product page copy.

2. Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to signals that come from other websites. When a website links to you (a backlink), it is essentially vouching for you. Google uses these mentions to understand how pages relate and determine which might be most helpful for a user’s search.

In practice, businesses get links because their content is worth citing. Maybe they’ll create original research, take part in expert interviews, or build tools and other resources to earn backlinks from respectable sites. 

The big difference between on- and off-page SEO is that you cannot fully control or implement these backlinks. It entirely depends on whether external sites find your content useful or credible enough to link to it. 

Backlinks

PageRank is part of Google’s algorithm. It surveys the relationships between websites and the content they link to. This ranking system was one of the original ways Google determined its search engine results and remains an important part of SEO marketing strategy.

By earning links from respected websites, you’ll increase your topic authority and ranking ability. Essentially, the more quality backlinks you have, the more reputable search engines will consider your site. Think of a site with strong domain authority linking to your page or site as a “vote” for your credibility on that topic or keyword.

Domain authority

As you create content, build links, and grow your organic search traffic, your website’s domain authority will increase over time. Domain authority is a measure of a site’s trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines, as was all but confirmed in the 2024 leak of Google’s Content API documentation.
Domain authority is the term used to describe which sites search engines may trust more than others, and considers them to be experts in certain topics. 

Websites with high domain authority are more likely to rank in search engine results pages for keywords related to their area of expertise. It’s sometimes measured by third-party domain authority scores, but the goal is to build a site that search engines can trust. You do this by publishing people-first, useful content and avoiding manipulative tactics. 

Increasing domain authority doesn’t happen overnight. It’s based on a cumulative effort of helpful content and editorial recognition. Focus on publishing quality content over quantity. Publish fewer pages that genuinely help people and pursue links that exist because others chose to reference your work, not because they were paid or influenced. 

Tip: The higher your domain authority score, the more challenging it becomes and longer it takes to increase it. So, don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t climb as quickly as it did when your site was starting out.

3. Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the work that helps search engines discover, crawl, and index a website. Before a page can rank, Google and Bing have to find and process it. As a site owner, you can make it easier with sitemaps, robots.txt, canonicalization, and JavaScript rendering options. Use Google’s URL Inspection tool to determine if a URL is accessible and indexable, and use the preview to see what Google sees on the page. You’ll need to set up the Google Search Console to do this. 

Often overlooked, technical foundations matter just as much, if not more, than your browser-facing work. Technical blockers can prevent beautifully written and researched content from ever appearing in a search result. 

If Googlebot crawls and detects the noindex directive, for example, the page will be removed from Search results. If your site is slow and throws server errors, Google may crawl less and again, not index your page. 

Mobile-friendliness

More than 60% of website traffic now comes from mobile devices. Search engines cater to these users by directing them to sites with an enjoyable mobile browsing experience. This includes responsive design, which is when content automatically resizes based on users’ screen size, touch-friendly design, and simplified navigation.

Nearly all modern website themes are responsive, but you should always test your website by actually using it on a mobile device. This helps identify potential issues with text, buttons, and speed.

TIP: Checking both mobile and desktop experiences is a good practice for digital marketing materials such as emails and landing pages, as well as websites, especially if they’re created in various tools in your retail tech stack. 

Site speed

Search engines want to point their users toward sites with an enjoyable user experience. A website that forces them to wait—even just a few extra seconds—can dampen their experience.

Shopify stores have an advantage over sites on alternative website builders because Shopify is built for speed. Some 93% of businesses using Shopify to run their online store have a fast website—more than any other major commerce platform.

4. Local SEO

Local SEO focuses on winning in your own backyard. It helps your business appear in geographically relevant results, like “near me” searches and map listings. 

Local SEO complements your broader search strategy because customers turn to Google to find out information like location, hours, and inventory—no matter where they plan to buy. 

In 2025, Rio SEO found 84% of consumers search for local businesses online daily, and 53% say inaccurate listings drive them away. Keeping your digital and physical storefronts in sync is the first step to improving your local SEO strategy. 

Google Business Profile

The first thing any business owner should do is create a Google Business Profile. It’s like another homepage for your business that gets you into Google Maps and local search results.

Google prioritizes complete and active profiles over neglected ones. So, make sure your address, service area, and hours are current. If there’s a holiday coming up, update your hours; people often check so they don’t waste a trip. This is an easy maintenance task you can delegate to a trusted employee if needed. 

Google will also make you verify your business through various methods. You can’t decide which method; Google will send you whatever option it feels is required for authorization. 

Once your profile is verified and active, ask customers to leave reviews on your page. Reviews are examples of social proof and influence rankings. Plus, Rio SEO’s report shows that 75% of consumers read at least four reviews before deciding on visiting a store or buying a product. 

Local relevance signals

Google notes three factors that influence local ranking:

• Relevance. How well the listing matches what someone searched for.
• Distance. How close the business is to the searcher. 
• Prominence. How well-known the business is. 

Aside from getting reviews and completing your business profile, it’s helpful to tweak elements of your website to send local signals to Google. 

For example, create location-specific landing pages for each store, including NAP (name/address/phone), hours, directions, and location FAQs for each. It’s also smart to organically tie in the city and area you serve in your page titles and on-page copy where it’s descriptive. 

Imagine you own a pet supply store on the west side of Indianapolis. To increase your chances of showing up in local and “pet supplies near me” searches, create landing pages optimized for specific towns or suburbs. Say you have a “Where to Find Us” or “Location” page. On that page you might list several of the areas you serve, such as Danville, Avon, and Plainfield. Link from those area names as anchor text to your specific landing pages. 

This anchors, or connects, the pages, such as “Pet Supplies in Danville” to the main locations page and to the site as a whole. Likewise, on the Danville pet supplies page, link internally back to other pages, such as category or product pages, e.g., dog beds, cat food, or grooming services. This closes the loop and helps site crawlers and visitors navigate your site more easily.

5 SEO marketing tactics

1. Keyword research
2. Competitive analysis
3. Link building
4. Image optimization
5. AI Overview optimization

Whether you’re planning SEO for a Shopify store or another website, here’s an SEO checklist to help you climb those search results.

1. Keyword research

Every page of your website that appears in search engine rankings is associated with one or more keywords (also known as search queries). The first step in any SEO project is to find which keywords your visitors are using to discover your site.

One place to start keyword research is Google Search Console, a free tool that shows you the queries people use to find your store. It also shows on what pages they land and where you currently rank. If you’re ranking in positions between three and 15, for example, you’re within striking distance of the coveted number one position where more people will find your page. These are great opportunities to optimize existing content for a quick rankings boost.

To conduct keyword strategy research, use a free SEO tool like Ahrefs or Ubersuggest. These platforms reveal a keyword’s popularity and how easy it is to rank for that term. Tools can also suggest keywords relevant to your niche and analyze your website to determine which keywords you already rank for. Leverage this data to decide which existing keywords are most important to your website and which new keywords you should pursue.

Ideally, keywords or keyword phrases should be popular enough to generate significant traffic but not so popular that you’re competing with websites and companies with marketing budgets beyond your scope. For example, say you’re creating an SEO marketing strategy for a candle business, and the brand groups its collections by:

• Scent (e.g., fruit-scented candles)
• Color (e.g., red candles)
• Occasion (e.g., Christmas candles)
• Material (e.g., beeswax candles)

Suppose “scented candles” has a monthly search volume of 1,000 and a difficulty rating of hard, but “fruit scented candles” has a volume of 350 and a difficulty of easy. You might choose the latter phrase because there’s less competition, it’s relevant to your brand, and it potentially can generate a few thousand views over a year. You can then use the term for a product page in an H1 or title tag.

You may also identify keywords adjacent to one of your products, such as “how to make candles last longer” or “how to cut candlesticks.” Using these keywords for standalone blog posts and including them in your title, body copy, and image alt text help increase your authority in your industry. 

For example, Original Duckhead publishes blog content about sustainability extending beyond its product offerings to position itself as a leader in the space.

💡 Read more: Keyword Research for Ecommerce: A Beginner’s Guide

2. Competitive analysis

Once you know which keywords to target, your next step is checking out SEO competitors already ranking highly for those terms.

By studying your competitors’ SEO strategies, it’s easier to formulate tactics to climb the search rankings and overtake them. With high-quality, relevant, and comprehensive content, even small businesses can leverage SEO to outrank larger competitors and reach customers first.

A good starting point for competitive analysis is to uncover which keywords your competitors are targeting and where they rank. You can use keyword tools and either study individual competitor pages or their entire websites to identify terms they’re targeting.

You might find, for example, that a competitor is using the phrase “women’s leopard print jeans” on a collection page. If you have a similar product, you can aim to use the same term. To conduct a thorough analysis, follow these steps:

• Identify your SEO competitors. Search your target keywords to see which domains consistently own the top spots.
• Analyze their content quality and structure. See how they answer the searcher’s intent and what topics might be missing.
• Evaluate their backlink profiles. Understand the level of authority required to compete for a specific ranking.
• Check their technical performance. Review metrics such as page load speed and mobile-friendliness, to find areas where you can provide a better user experience.
• Identify keyword gaps. Note where your competitors rank well, but your site lacks relevant content.

But before pushing forward with this strategy, ask yourself: Can I reasonably make a better page that makes sense to my business? If the answer is no, move on to the next opportunity. The key is to prioritize strategies ripe for success and make business sense. Attempting to rank for queries related to products you don’t sell or topics unrelated to your core business is a waste of time.

Read: Use SERP Analysis to Improve SEO

3. Link building

Though it can be time-consuming, link building is a well-acknowledged way to enhance your search engine rankings. Attracting links to your website from more authoritative sites signals to search engines that your content is worth visitors’ time.

To begin executing a white hat SEO linking strategy, establish a presence on social media platforms and local business directories. The links you generate from social media sites may not give you a boost in search engines, but they can help with making your website more visible.

You can pitch your business or products to relevant websites or news outlets with the same target audience. If you have subject-matter expertise, consider pitching a guest blog post that points back to your website. 

You can also focus on your blog and create useful content—such as original research, free tools like calculators or templates, case studies, white papers, surveys, or statistics. Your goal is to create content others want to reference by linking back to your site.

Avoid the temptation to buy backlinks. You may be approached to do so, especially when your site is new and growing but this is considered a high-risk, black hat SEO tactic that violates Google’s spam policies.

💡 Read More: How To Get Backlinks: 15 Proven Strategies

4. Image optimization

While Google and other search engines focus on your website’s written content, they also crawl your images and media. By optimizing the images on your website, you can enhance your on-page SEO while adding web accessibility benefits for visitors.

Start by incorporating descriptive keywords into image file names and writing helpful image alt text under 125 characters for all the images on your site. 

For example, effective alt-text for an image of Cherry Blossom, a pink candle, would be: “A pink candle named Cherry Blossom in a glass jar on a white backdrop.” This will give search engines another tool for determining whether your content is relevant and valuable.

Next, make sure your images are the optimal size and file format. Google likes large, high-quality images—it just doesn’t love huge file sizes needing longer load times. Compress images and use efficient file formats, such as .png or .webp, to improve the user experience and speed up load times.

5. AI Overview optimization 

AI Overview optimization increases the odds a page is chosen as a supporting link inside Google’s AI Overviews or AI Mode. Google says that no special optimizations are required—the same SEO fundamentals apply. Eligibility still depends on being indexed and following Google’s Search policies. 

However, companies like Ahrefs have published studies on ranking in AI Overviews and compiled a few suggestions that work:

Target informational question-based queries

TheAhrefs study found that AI triggers on 57.9% of question queries and 59.8% of why (reason) queries. Long-tail keywords (more than seven words) see an AIO trigger rate of 46.4%. Use a keyword tool like Ahrefs Keywords Explorer to filter for question-based keywords in your niche with seven or more words and informational intent.

Rank in the traditional top 10

Ahrefs found 76% of AIO citations rank in the traditional top 10, with the median top-cited URL sitting at the second position. Identify pages currently ranking in positions 11 to 20. Focus your SEO efforts on pushing these into the top 10 to qualify for an AI citation.

Focus on intent density over word count

There is near-zero correlation between word count and AI citations. Research suggests that the info AI uses plateaus at around 540 words. Move your answer to the very top of the page and cut any fluff that doesn’t serve the identified intent. 

Optimize for fan-out queries

AI search engines break out one query into multiple sub-queries, known as fan-outs. Pages that rank across fan-out queries are 161% more likely to be cited in the final AI Overview. 

Build positive brand mentions

Get backlinks from high-authority sites and partner with creators to get your brand mentioned into video descriptions and transcripts. 

AI Overviews are the new reality of search. It feels like they are eating your traffic, but you can use the research-backed tips above to ensure your brand is the source they cite. 

Measuring SEO success: Key metrics to monitor

As with any digital marketing strategy, the only way to know whether you’re making headway on your goals is to monitor SEO key performance indicators (KPIs). Those most relevant metrics to SEO marketing include:

• Organic traffic. This tracks how much traffic came to your website through non-paid sources. You can use a tool like Google Analytics for this metric.
• Backlinks. These are the number of websites linking to your site from theirs. Use a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs to analyze your existing backlinks, and use guest blogging and content marketing to build new backlinks.
• Keyword rankings. Learn which keywords you rank for and which ones are worth creating content for with Google Search Console or a tool like Moz.
• Organic conversions. Determine how many people converted after coming through a non-paid source. A conversion can mean a purchase, a signup, a download, an account creation, or other desirable action. You can use Google Analytics to track conversions.
• Organic click-through rate. This is the percentage of people who saw and clicked your listing in the SERP. You can use Google Search Console to determine organic CTR.
• Core Web Vitals. Google determines a site’s health through its Core Web Vitals, a combination of three metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (how long the largest image takes to load), First Input Delay (how long it takes for a page to process a user interaction), and Cumulative Layout Shift (a page’s visual stability). You can use Google Search Console for Core Web Vitals.

Third-party tools are useful for tracking metrics, but Google Search Console is your best bet. It’s a free resource from Google that shows how your site is performing in search results. The data comes straight from the source, and help you:

• Identify pages to push into the top 10 results
• Inspect URLs to see if they are properly crawled and indexed 
• Submit sitemaps to speed up the discovery of new content 
• Receive alerts for security issues or technical errors that hurt your rankings 

The future of SEO: Trends to watch

• Generative AI for content creation and optimization
• Increased topical authority
• Rise of zero-click searches

It takes time for SEO to make an impact, but the industry can move at a quick pace. Here are three major SEO trends to keep on your radar this year:

Generative AI for content creation and optimization

Artificial intelligence has infiltrated most aspects of modern marketing. SEO is no different. The best way to use AI business tools is as a support system, not to replace human creativity.

AI content creation tools (like Shopify Sidekick, Shopify Magic, and Jasper) can produce outlines and initial drafts of copy with a single prompt. Improve this copy with keyword optimization tools like Surfer. 

It’s important to layer in your own brand voice, insights, and human expertise though. Human readers prefer human content, and mass producing and publishing garbage will not help your search rankings. 

The industry is already leaning into the AI-Human approach. According to a Shopify Merchant Survey in November 2025, 69% of merchants who use AI tools apply them to content generation, cited as the most common use case. 

However, less than one-third use AI for data analysis or automation, suggesting that while AI is excellent for kickstarting the creative process, strategy and refinement still rests with the merchant.

Increased topical authority

Generative AI has proven so popular that Google did a complete 360 on its original stance to deprioritize AI-generated content in search results. But there’s a caveat: In January 2025, Google advised its quality raters to assign pages where the main content is clearly AI-generated as “Lowest quality.” 

Ecommerce businesses should take note. Online shopping websites impact shoppers’ finances, which puts your content under Google’s “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) category. That designation means Google applies much stricter standards for safety and accuracy. 

Entrepreneurs who use AI to generate content should follow Google’s EEAT guidelines. This states content should be written with:

• Expertise
• Experience
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

There are multiple ways to meet this criteria with AI-generated content. Perhaps you use AI to create an outline, then write the draft yourself, weaving in your (or another expert’s) experience to show credibility. Reference recent studies and fact-check the AI suggestions to ensure accuracy.

You could also contribute articles to leading publications in your industry. Ask for an author profile in exchange for the content and boast about your credentials. It could be a professional certification, extensive industry experience, or examples of where you’ve been featured in the press. 

This helps cater to one checkbox on Google’s checklist: “Is this content written or reviewed by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?”

Rise of zero-click searches

Not everyone uses search engines to navigate to a website. Sometimes, the user wants a quick answer—like the hours of operation of a business or the price of an item. Zero-click searches cater to these habits by giving searchers an immediate answer without needing to click through to a website.

While this might sound like an SEO challenge for ecommerce brands, it’s made branded searches more valuable. AI models and search engines prioritize trusted entities to avoid misinformation, so a strong brand presence protects your visibility even when clicks are down.

Google does offer publishers the opportunity to offer immediate answers (and, thus, build brand authority) through SERP features like:

• Featured snippets
• AI Overviews
• Knowledge panels
• People Also Ask boxes

To show up in these places, businesses are adopting newer tactics like answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO). These SEO subsets focus on getting your business cited as a primary source amongst voice assistants and in AI-generated summaries in ChatGPT and Gemini,. 

Increase the odds of appearing in these zero-click snippets by creating high-quality content that answers the search query. Format your content to make it easy for search engine crawlers to find this answer. 

One way is to target the People Also Ask section, or PAA. To take advantage of this “people also search for” data, create an FAQ section with succinct answers easy for Google to excerpt.