SEO Basics: What is It and Why Does It Matter? -072

Season #3 November 04, 2026

You've heard that SEO is important for your business, but what exactly is it, how does it work, and is it really worth your time? And with more people turning to AI for answers, does traditional SEO even matter anymore? This month on the SEO Day Podcast, we're going Back to SEO Basics! We're breaking down the fundamentals of search engine optimization so entrepreneurs and small business owners can better understand how SEO works, why it matters, and how it helps their businesses get found online.

In Episode 072, hosts Kim White and Denise Millet kick off the month's theme by answering five foundational SEO questions that every business owner should understand. We're talking about what SEO actually means, how search engines discover and recommend your website, why SEO matters for businesses of all sizes, and whether investing your time and resources into SEO is worthwhile.

We'll also explore one of the biggest questions business owners are asking today: Is SEO still important when people are using AI tools to search for information and discover businesses?

Whether you're brand-new to SEO, have tried a few things without seeing results, or simply want to better understand how search is changing, this episode will help you build a stronger foundation for making your business easier to find. Because here's the thing: SEO isn't just about rankings or keywords. It's about helping the right people discover your business when they're looking for the solutions, products, and services you offer.

5 SEO Questions We Answer in This Episode

What is SEO?
How does SEO work?
Why does my business need SEO?
Is SEO worth it for small businesses?
Does SEO still matter in the age of AI?

What You'll Take Away From This Episode

SEO can feel confusing, especially when you're hearing about algorithms, keywords, rankings, AI search, and constantly changing recommendations. But the fundamentals of SEO are easier to understand when you focus on what really matters: helping people find useful information and connect with businesses that can meet their needs.

In this episode, we'll explore how to:

Understand SEO without the technical jargon so you can make more informed decisions about your website and online presence.
Learn how search engines work and why your website's content, structure, and accessibility matter.
Recognize the business benefits of SEO, from attracting potential customers to building visibility and credibility online.
Evaluate SEO as a long-term business investment and understand why consistent improvements can create opportunities over time.
Understand SEO's role in an AI-driven world, where traditional search engines and AI-powered discovery tools are changing how people find information.

You don't need to master every technical detail or keep up with every algorithm update to begin benefiting from SEO. What matters is understanding the basics, recognizing the opportunities, and taking practical steps to help your business become more visible to the people you're trying to reach.

The goal isn't simply to get more traffic. It's to help the right people find your business, understand what you offer, and feel confident taking the next step.

Keep Moving Forward with The Momentum Builders Circle

Understanding SEO is just one part of building a successful business. Turning what you learn into consistent action is where real progress begins. That's why we want to introduce you to The Momentum Builders Circle.

The Momentum Builders Circle is designed to help you build and maintain momentum toward the things that matter most to you... whether they're personal goals, professional development, or business initiatives. It's about moving beyond collecting ideas and information to making meaningful progress, one intentional step at a time.

Whether you're working on improving your website, launching something new, developing your skills, or moving a personal project forward, The Momentum Builders Circle helps you stay focused on your priorities and keep moving toward your goals. Because progress doesn't always come from doing more. Sometimes it comes from having the focus, encouragement, and consistency to keep doing what matters.

More information on the Momentum Builders Circle

Ready to Put SEO to Work? Join the SEO Roadmap Workshop!

Now that you're learning the basics of SEO, the next question is: What should you actually do to make SEO work for your business?

That's where the SEO Roadmap Workshop comes in.

Designed for entrepreneurs and business owners, the SEO Roadmap Workshop helps take the confusion and overwhelm out of search engine optimization by guiding you through the important steps toward improving your website's visibility and findability.

Instead of trying every SEO tip you hear, chasing algorithm updates, or wondering where to start, you'll learn how to focus on what matters for your business and develop a practical plan for moving forward.

The workshop helps you:

Understand how potential customers search for businesses like yours.
Identify opportunities to make your website easier to find.
Recognize the SEO fundamentals that deserve your attention.
Prioritize improvements that align with your business goals.
Build a manageable roadmap for making consistent SEO progress.

You don't have to become an SEO expert to reap the benefits of SEO. You just need to understand the basics and have a clear plan for putting them into action.

Join the SEO Roadmap Workshop and start building a stronger foundation for online visibility, findability, and long-term business growth.

The SEO Day Podcast helps entrepreneurs and small business owners understand SEO, improve their online visibility, and make their businesses easier to find, one question at a time.

Episode Transcript

Episode 072 - SEO Basics _ What Is It and Why Does It Matter_
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[00:00:00] Welcome to SEO Day Studio with your hosts, the Findability Queen, Denise Millet, and the entrepreneur whisperer, Kim White. This is a space to hear the questions that fellow entrepreneurs have about SEO and get them answered.

Denise is on a mission to help entrepreneurs get the content they spend hours creating included in search engines, so when their customers search online, they're findable.

Because she believes if they can't find you, they can't do business with you. So stay tuned. The fun starts now

Welcome to SEO Day Podcast Studio. I'm Kim White, and I'm joined by Denise Millet, the Findability Queen herself. This month, we're going back to the basics with SEO. I love this explanation. SEO does not have to be complicated, but it definitely can feel overwhelming when you're [00:01:00] just getting started. We're going to revisit what SEO really means, how it works, and why it matters for your business.

We'll also talk about whether SEO is worth your time and how AI is changing the way people search. So let's get started Question number one, Denise. I'm, I just like am rolling right past you Please. What exactly is SEO? Can you tell I'm excited about this topic? I can, and hi, Kim. It's great to be here. SEO stands for search engine optimization.

It's the process of helping search engines understand your website, your web pages, the content you put in blogs, so they can show it to people looking for what you offer or what you have to say. it isn't just about appearing on the front page of search results anymore, like how it began way, way back where we were trying to trick [00:02:00] it into getting us higher on the page.

It's about helping the right people discover your business when they need your product, services, or expertise. And it used to be getting to the top of the results, but now if you use, something that speaks to an individual, you're gonna get served up to them, and that's way more valuable. Love it.

Well, question number two goes right, right in line with that, Denise. How does SEO work? Good question. it used to feel like a really big black box and nobody knew what went on, but we know a lot more now. We still don't know all of it 'cause a lot of it's proprietary, but search engines discover website pages.

they have programs that go out and read. They just go from place to place to place and read all the pages. They read the content, and they decide which pages are most helpful and relevant to what a person might be searching for. So [00:03:00] what SEO is SEO helps you make your pages easy to understand by search engines, and your people of course, 'cause you're always writing for people.

You're not writing for machines. But you use your keywords, the words that your customers use to search with, and put that in your content, creating useful content that answers their questions. Such a good explanation. Thank you. Thank you. Question number three is, why does my business need SEO? Oh, I like this one.

I like answering this one, because we hear all sorts of things going on with AI, like SEO is not relevant anymore, and in the end of 2025 or the middle of 2025, it was released that there are now 15.4 billion searches done per day on the main platform. Wow. So people are searching [00:04:00] online every day for solutions, products, services, and SEO helps your business become one of the options they can discover.

So unlike... As a business owner, unlike advertising, which stops bringing in visitors when you stop paying for it, it only works as long as you're willing to pay up for it, good SEO can continue over the long term attracting visitors over a long period of time. A wise investment, it sounds like. It does. It does.

this episode is sponsored by the Momentum Builders Circle, where entrepreneurs get the structure, support, accountability, and smart business strategy they need to turn their ideas into consistent action, real results, and in only seven weeks. So come experience true momentum inside the circle. The link is in the show notes.[00:05:00]

Now, back to the questions, Madam Findability Queen. Number four: Is SEO worth it for a small business? Yes. I am gonna flat out say yes, because SEO is something that can help small businesses compete by focusing on specific services, locations, and what your customer needs, rather than trying to compete with large companies for every search.

So improvements like adding keywords to the appropriate places in your content that search engines read or answering common customer questions on your website can make a difference in how people find you, and I think it's a worthwhile investment of time. And going with the last answer that you gave, if it's a long-term thing, you get that repeatedly.

I think that's the part I like the [00:06:00] most. Yes. So question number five: Is SEO still important now that people use AI? Emphatic yes, absolutely. AI-powered search tools still need reliable, helpful information to generate answers. So it's no longer just search engines reading your content, but the AI platforms are also going out reading, and they're taking also things from the search engines.

So clear, well-organized website content can improve your chances of being discovered. SEO is evolving beyond just traditional search platforms. Businesses should focus on being useful, trustworthy, and easy to understand for both search engines and AI, because eventually people need to get to people.

Yes. They look for information, but they're gonna need a person, and you want to be that person. You want to be- That's right ... their person. [00:07:00] Right. So that was a quick episode, Kim, and if this episode helped you, listener, share it with a fellow entrepreneur who might be trying to use AI, SEO and AI, and understand the basics, please.

Yes. Well, and I want to remind everybody that Tuesdays is the day that the Findability Queen says to make SEO day, you know, podcast and your implementing of those things on Tuesdays. So subscribe to the channel, share, you know, share the show. Do your part to help make this better because this is such an overwhelming topic, and we appreciate you being here.

We do, and we'll see you next time, or, well, you'll listen to us next time.

Thank you for joining Denise and Kim in the SEO Day studio for today's discussion. If you would like one of your SEO questions answered in [00:08:00] a future episode, head on over to denisemillet.com/questions to let us know. The link is also in the show notes. We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the SEO Day podcast.

Follow the show so you can hear when new episodes get released and stay in the know about SEO. Until next time