SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing a website to increase its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). To understand the basics of SEO, a beginner should focus on the following steps:

Keyword research: Identify relevant keywords that potential visitors might use to search for your website or content.
On-page optimization: Optimize your website's structure, meta tags, and content to align with your target keywords and improve its ranking in SERPs.
Content creation: Create high-quality, relevant, and engaging content that attracts and retains visitors to your website.
Link building: Build high-quality backlinks to your website to improve its authority and ranking in SERPs.
Monitoring and analysis: Use tools to monitor your website's performance, track keywords, and analyze user behavior to make data-driven decisions and adjust your strategy.
In addition to these basics, it's important to understand Google's updates process. Google regularly updates its algorithm to improve the quality of its search results and to prevent spammy websites from ranking high in SERPs. Some important factors to keep in mind include:

Quality guidelines: Google has a set of quality guidelines that websites should follow to improve their chances of ranking high in SERPs.
Core updates: Google periodically releases major updates that can impact website rankings. These updates focus on improving the relevance and quality of search results.
Technical updates: Google also releases smaller updates that focus on technical issues, such as page speed or mobile-friendliness.
To stay on top of these updates, beginners should regularly check for news and updates from Google, use tools to monitor their website's performance, and make necessary adjustments to their SEO strategy.