Just What Does SEO Stand For?

Do you ever wonder just what does “SEO” stand for? If you’re at all involved in business, especially about websites, then you have no doubt heard the term before.

Actually, the term is an acronym, and it’s short for search engine optimization. It’s a process of making sure a website is optimized to be recognized by a search engine, listed appropriately, and then hopefully given to the search engine users as a prominent link for certain keywords.

Example of SEO

Consider an example company that sells paper products in the city of Podunk. They would want their website found by anyone Googling “Podunk paper products” or “Podunk paper store.” So, the paper retailer in Podunk would create a website that focuses on those keywords.

The content of the site would need to be revolved around those keywords, as would many of the technical aspects of the site.

Search Engine Optimization Explained

Another big aspect of search engine optimization or SEO is the generation of backlinks. Search engines use these to judge how highly rated a website is considered to be by other sites so Google, Yahoo, and Bing can gauge how relevant and authoritative a site is so they can determine how highly to list a site in their rankings.

Those rankings are another acronym called SERPs or search engine ranking positions or search engine results positions, depending on who you ask. Obviously, the first link of the first page of results is the top position around for a set of keywords and thusly gets the most traffic rewarded to it. Your goal should be getting to the second page at least. If your niche is low in competition, aim for the first page, and then the top half of the first page. Those are the links that generate the most traffic for sites, and the whole goal of SEO. More visitors means more money through your website.