Linear search is a simple algorithm for finding an element within a list. It involves traversing the list sequentially from the beginning, comparing each element to the target value until a match is found or the end of the list is reached. The steps are to read the search element, compare it to the first list element, check for a match, and if no match then compare to the next element until the end of the list. It has an complexity of O(n) but is practical for small lists or a single search of an unordered list.