What is SEO and how Google rankings work
SEO (search engine optimization) is work on a website that makes it appear higher in Google's free results when someone searches for a question or a service you offer. In Poland it is most often called website positioning (pozycjonowanie stron). You don't pay Google for clicks, as you do with ads. You pay with time and work: on the technical side of the site, on content and on how the rest of the internet sees your business.
Below we explain how a search engine works, what SEO consists of, how long it takes and how much it costs, and where to start on your own website. Without jargon wherever we can avoid it, and with examples from our work.
What is SEO in simple terms
Imagine Google as a librarian who has to pick ten books out of millions in a fraction of a second. They pick the ones that best answer the question, are easy to read and are trusted by others. SEO means making sure your website is exactly that kind of book: easy to find on the shelf, on topic and recommended by others.
The effect is easy to measure. A page that appears on the first page of results for the phrases customers type gets traffic you don't pay for per visit. A page on the third page of results practically doesn't exist, because hardly anyone looks there.
How Google search works
Google describes its work in three stages. Each of them can block your website, so it's worth knowing them:
- Crawling. Google's robot moves around the internet, going from link to link. If no link leads to your page and it isn't in the sitemap, the robot may never find it.
- Indexing. Google reads the page, works out what it is about and stores it in its index. A page with a technical error, blocked in the robots.txt file or very similar to another page may be left out.
- Serving results. When someone types a query, Google picks the pages from its index that best answer it and puts them in order. This is where content, page quality, speed and authority count.
A quick test: type into Google site:yourdomain.pl. You'll see roughly how many pages of your website are in the index. If the result is empty or much smaller than your number of pages, the problem starts at the crawling or indexing stage, not at the ranking stage.
The three pillars of SEO
1. Technical SEO
Everything that lets Google read the page without obstacles and lets people use it comfortably. The most important elements:
- Speed and stability. Google measures them with Core Web Vitals: the time to load the largest element (LCP, a good result is up to 2.5 s), the response to a click (INP, up to 200 ms) and layout shifts during loading (CLS, up to 0.1).
- Mobile version. Google mainly assesses how the site works on a phone. A site you have to zoom into with your fingers loses out both with Google and with customers.
- Indexing setup. A sitemap, a correct robots.txt file, canonical URLs and 301 redirects after URL changes.
- Structured data. A description of your business, services, prices or questions in a format Google understands without guessing.
An example from our own website: in October 2026 our service pages had a desktop layout shift (CLS) of 0.179, above the acceptable limit. The cause was trivial: the large image at the top of the page had no dimensions set, so the text jumped down while the image loaded. After adding the dimensions, CLS dropped to 0.008 and the desktop PageSpeed score rose from 87-90 to 97-98 points. An hour of work, with the effect on all service pages at once.
2. Content and on-page optimisation
Google shows pages that answer the question, not pages with the most repetitions of a keyword. That's why good SEO content starts with intent: does the person typing the phrase want to learn something, compare offers or buy straight away?
- One keyword, one page. If two of your pages compete for the same search, Google doesn't know which one to show, and often both perform worse.
- Title and description in the results. The page title (up to about 60 characters) and description (up to about 155) decide whether someone clicks on you.
- Headings and structure. A clear division into sections helps both people and robots.
- Internal links. Blog guides should lead to the pages where customers can buy. Without that, blog traffic doesn't turn into enquiries.
Since 2024, Google explicitly penalises mass production of low-value content, regardless of whether a person or AI writes it. What counts is whether the text really helps, not how much of it there is.
3. Authority: links and mentions
When other credible websites link to yours, Google treats it as a recommendation. Quality counts, not quantity. One link from a local news portal or an industry website is worth more than a hundred links from random directories. Buying links meant to artificially boost rankings breaks Google's rules and can end with a penalty for the whole domain.
Safe sources of authority are business profiles in directories and industry websites, expert articles, mentions in local media, partnerships and customer reviews.
Local SEO: a separate game for nearby customers
When someone looks for a hairdresser, a mechanic or a dentist in their city, Google usually shows a map with three businesses first and only then the regular results. You get into that top three with a Google Business Profile, not with your website alone. According to Google, the order depends on relevance, distance from the person searching and the business's prominence, including reviews.
For a local service business this is often the fastest source of phone calls. We write more in our guide local SEO for small businesses, and describe the service on the page local SEO and Google Business Profile.
SEO and website positioning: are they the same?
In everyday language, yes. Some specialists, however, distinguish optimisation, meaning work on the site itself (technical side, content, structure), from positioning understood as building authority outside the site, mainly with links. In practice, neither works well without the other: links pointing to a slow, poorly described site won't help, and a great site without any mentions online will grow very slowly.
SEO or Google Ads?
| SEO | Google Ads | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | the work on the website; the traffic is free | every click on the ad |
| When you see results | usually after 3-6 months | from the first day of the campaign |
| What happens when you stop | rankings drop slowly, content stays | traffic disappears with the budget |
| Best for | a steady source of customers that gets cheaper over time | quick sales and testing an offer |
They work best together: ads sell straight away, while SEO builds traffic you won't be paying per click for in a few months' time. We describe campaigns in detail on the page Google Ads campaigns.
How long SEO takes and when you see results
Technical fixes and new titles can bring the first changes within a few weeks. A clear increase in traffic for competitive keywords usually takes 3-6 months. New domains without history or links grow the slowest.
We've been through this ourselves. Our website started with a domain with zero authority. Pages targeting less competitive keywords, such as "website for" a specific industry, reached positions 1-8, while for the hardest service keywords we are still building authority step by step. That's what honest SEO looks like: some results come quickly, others take months.
How much SEO costs
Our review of 17 public price lists shows that SEO for a local business usually starts at around PLN 1,200 net a month, and for a small online store at around PLN 2,500 net. The price depends on competition for keywords, the number of services and cities, the condition of the site and how much authority needs to be built.
Our packages start at PLN 790 a month, and every one includes regular blog posts. The full scope and prices are in our SEO pricing. Before signing a contract with any agency, go through the list of questions in how to choose an SEO agency.
SEO in the age of AI
More and more answers appear directly in Google results (AI Overviews) and in ChatGPT. That doesn't mean the end of SEO. These systems also need to take their information from somewhere, and they readily use pages that are fast, well described, have consistent business details and answer questions directly. We explain how to increase your chances of being cited in AI answers in our article on AI search optimization (GEO).
How to start SEO on your own website: 7 steps
- Connect Google Search Console. It's a free Google tool that shows which phrases your site appears for and what errors it has.
- Check the index. Type
site:yourdomain.pland compare the result with your number of pages. - Measure speed. PageSpeed Insights shows Core Web Vitals results on mobile and desktop.
- Improve titles and descriptions of your most important pages: services, pricing, contact.
- Make a list of keywordsyour customers search for, and assign each one to a single page.
- Set up or tidy up your Google Business Profile, if you operate locally.
- Plan content that answers customers' questions and link from it to your service pages.
No time to diagnose it yourself? A free SEO audit will show your speed, visibility and a comparison with three competitors within 2 hours, together with three fixes to start with.
Frequently asked questions
What is SEO in simple terms?
SEO is work on a website that makes it appear higher in Google's free results for the phrases your customers search for. It has three parts: the technical side of the site, content and authority, meaning links and mentions online.
Can I do SEO myself?
The basics, yes: Search Console, titles and descriptions, a Google Business Profile, a few good articles. With strong competition, a store with hundreds of products or a drop after a site change, working with a specialist is usually faster and cheaper.
What is the difference between SEO and SEM?
SEM is all marketing in search engines: both SEO, meaning free results, and paid ads such as Google Ads. So SEO is part of SEM.
Does SEO still work now that AI gives the answers?
Yes. Google results still bring most search traffic, and AI systems readily cite pages that are well prepared for SEO: fast, with clear answers and consistent business details.
How much does SEO cost?
On the market, SEO for a local business usually starts at around PLN 1,200 net a month. Our packages start at PLN 790 a month with a 12-month contract.
How do I check whether my website is in Google?
Type into Google site: followed by your domain, for example site:yourcompany.pl. Google Search Console gives more detailed data, with a list of errors and keywords.
