SEO basics: what actually affects your ranking on Google

"SEO" sounds like a dark art, but underneath it is a fairly simple question: does Google understand what your page is about, and can it put that page in front of people with a clear conscience? In this article I explain, without the jargon, what genuinely counts — and where people waste their time and money for nothing.

What SEO actually is

SEO (search engine optimisation) is simply the work of making sure Google can find your site, understand it and rank it as high as possible for the searches that matter to your business. Nothing more mysterious than that — but technical enough that plenty of people get lost among the advice out there, half of which is out of date or beside the point.

What really affects your ranking

• The technical groundwork. The site has to load quickly, work on a phone and carry the right meta tags (title, description) for every individual page. Without that, Google struggles to work out what the page is even about. (More on speed in a separate article.)
• Real, useful content. Google rewards pages that genuinely answer the question somebody was searching for. A short, empty page with no proper writing on it has nothing to offer — not to the visitor and not to Google.
• Structured data. Hidden code (Schema.org) that tells Google exactly what is on the page — a business, an article, a set of frequently asked questions. It doesn't affect the ranking directly, but it often earns you a better-looking result (star ratings, for instance, or FAQs expanded right there in the search results).
• A sitemap (sitemap.xml) and registration in Google Search Console. This is Google's direct "list" of all your pages. Without it, there will be pages Google has no idea exist.
• Links from elsewhere (backlinks). When other relevant, credible sites point at yours — local media, partners, business directories — that tells Google other people trust you. Quality counts for more than quantity.
• Consistency over time. A site you update regularly (a new article, a new reference) signals that it is alive, so Google comes back to look at it more often.

Common myths and wasted effort

• The "keywords" meta tag. Google stopped paying attention to it years ago — filling it with a list of keywords does absolutely nothing.
• Stuffing your text with keywords. "Web design, websites, affordable websites, websites Ljubljana..." — Google recognises this today and penalises it rather than rewarding it. Write naturally, for people.
• Buying links, or a "guaranteed first place on Google". Nobody can guarantee a position on Google — the algorithm is not for sale. Providers who promise it use risky tricks that can end up penalising the site in the long run.
• One big page instead of several focused ones. It is better to have a clear page for each topic or service than to cram everything onto one page that tries to cover the lot.

How to check where you stand (for free)

1. Google Search Console — Google's free tool, which shows you which of your pages are indexed, which searches people find you through and whether there are technical errors.
2. PageSpeed Insights — speed and the technical health of the site (covered in more detail in the article on speed).
3. A quick test: type site:yourdomain.si into Google — it shows you which pages Google currently has indexed.

How I handle it

Every site I build is technically optimised from the first line of code: correct meta tags, structured data, a sitemap and registration in Google Search Console are included in every project, not bolted on afterwards. For a quick, concrete example of what that actually delivers, have a look at the story of this website, where the measured results are written up.