What Actually Happens During an SEO Optimization

When people hear “SEO,” they often think of keywords and blog posts. In reality, a large part of SEO is technical and structural work that most visitors never see.

To show what this really looks like, we recently ran a full SEO audit on our own website and documented the process.

Step 1: Run a full SEO report

The first step is measurement.

An audit highlights weak points such as:

• slow performance

• poor page structure

• technical errors

• accessibility issues

• missing or weak on-page SEO elements

Before making any changes, we recorded our baseline scores so we could measure real progress later.

I forgot to run the before speed report so I'll just have to give you the numbers:

• Performance : 40%

• Accessibility : 60%

• Best Practices : 82%

• SEO : 70%

Step 2: Fix the important things first

Instead of trying random tweaks, we focused on the areas that impact both users and search engines the most:

1. Front-end and visual assets.

   - Compressing and optimizing images and media so pages load faster.

2. Page structure and layout

   - Cleaning up headings, sections, and overall structure so content is easier to crawl and understand.

3. Performance and technical SEO

   - Reducing unnecessary code and scripts to improve load times.

4. Mobile optimization

   - Making sure the mobile version is fast and easy to use (this is critical since Google is mobile-first).

5. On-page SEO

   - Improving titles, meta descriptions, and content structure.

6. Authority and backlinks

   - Continuing to build quality links so the site gains trust over time (these take time to be indexed).

This part took over 20 hours of focused work.

Step 3: Run the reports again

After the fixes, we re-ran the same reports.

The results showed clear improvements across:

• overall SEO score

• performance

• accessibility

• best practices

Some areas, like backlinks and external authority, take longer to reflect in tools because search engines need time to crawl and index them.

What this means in practice

Within the first 24–48 hours, you may notice small improvements as changes are crawled.

The bigger gains usually build over the next few months as search engines reprocess the site and new backlinks get indexed.

SEO is not a switch you flip. It’s a cycle:

measure → optimize → measure again → repeat

Each round removes more friction and builds a stronger foundation for long-term organic growth.

If your website hasn’t gone through a full audit and cleanup like this, there’s a good chance performance and visibility are being held back by fixable issues.

Proper SEO is an investment in steady, compounding visibility rather than short-term spikes.