SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of improving a website’s visibility in search engine results so that more of the right people find it when they search for relevant terms.

Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to evaluate hundreds of signals when deciding which pages to show for a given search query. These signals include the relevance and quality of the page’s content, the technical performance of the website, the authority and credibility of the domain based on links and citations from other websites, and signals about the geographic relevance of the business for local searches.

SEO works by optimizing a website across all of these signal categories so that Google consistently ranks it higher than competing websites for the searches that matter most to the business. For professional service firms, this typically means appearing on page one of Google when potential clients in their area search for the specific services they offer.