Found in Google. Mentioned by AI.

Short answer: not based on search volume, but on the likelihood that a search query will result in a customer.

Volume is the figure everyone looks at, yet it says the least. A keyword with 10,000 monthly searches where no one buys is worth less than a keyword with 80 searches from people wanting a quote.

What we look for in practice:

• Search intent. Does someone want to know something, compare something, or buy something? Only the latter group requests a quote in the short term. The first two build trust for later.
• Feasibility. Who is currently on page one, and with what level of authority? You will not win against parties that have worked on it for fifteen years in just one quarter.
• Your own starting position. Keywords for which you are already ranked 8th to 20th are almost always a quicker win than something entirely new.
• What lies behind it. Can you create a page about it that is truly better than what is currently there? If not, it is not a realistic goal.

Tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Semrush provide the data. The choice itself is an assessment of market and feasibility, and no tool can make that for you.

Short answer: a good agency ensures that the right people find you and that they get in touch once they arrive. That involves more than just managing rankings.

In practice, the work comes down to this:

• Determining what you should be found for. Keyword research, but focused on what generates inquiries rather than just the highest volumes.
• Getting the site’s technical aspects in order. Speed, structure, indexability. Without these, the rest will not work.
• Creating and improving content that answers the user’s search query — and that can also be cited by AI assistants.
• Building authority with links and mentions from sites that matter in your market.
• Improving conversion. More traffic without more inquiries is an expensive hobby.
• Measuring and adjusting, every quarter, based on inquiries and revenue rather than rankings alone.

What a good agency also does: saying no. If your current system is technically unsuitable for achieving results, starting with optimization is a waste of money. You will be told that first.

Short answer: internet marketing is everything you do online to be found by people looking for what you provide, and subsequently turning those visitors into customers.

It consists of a handful of components that reinforce each other:

• Visibility (SEO and GEO). Ensuring you appear in Google and in AI responses from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. That is where a growing share of searches begins today.
• Advertising (SEA). Paid top placement, especially useful while your organic positions are still growing.
• Your website itself. Speed, structure, and copy that answer the question the visitor arrived with.
• Conversion. From visitor to inquiry. This is the component that is most often skipped and generates revenue the fastest.
• Measurement. Knowing which channel generates which inquiries, so your budget can be directed toward what works.

What it is not: isolated tricks. An advertising campaign without a good landing page, or high rankings for a site where no one makes contact, costs money without delivering results.

Short answer: local SEO ensures you are found by people in your service area, including the map and the local pack at the top of Google.

It differs from regular SEO in three ways:

• Your Google Business Profile carries significant weight. Opening hours, category, photos, and especially reviews help determine whether you appear in the map pack. That profile often yields faster results than your website.
• Consistent data. Name, address, and phone number must be identical everywhere — on your site, in business directories, and on social media. Discrepancies create doubt.
• Pages per location or per service. A single page listing twelve city names does not work. A dedicated page per service area, with its own unique content, does.

The good news: local competition is usually limited. While ranking nationally can take twelve to eighteen months, you can often compete locally within a few months. This makes it the most sensible starting point for most businesses with a specific service area.