SEO Explained Simply: SEO Introduction + Meaning + Summary

Learning SEO always begins with understanding it.

And how do you understand it better?

What you need to know to get familiar with SEO?

Learning always begins with a proper introduction to SEO.

Then you need to understand its meaning & have a summary of SEO.

In all what you need is SEO simply explained to you.

SEO Simply Explained

Explaining SEO simply is important to help know what it is.

This is how a layman can understand what is SEO.

And when a beginners wants to know how to learn SEO faster, this is where to start.

Here is SEO explained in simple words for a layman.

SEO Explained in Simple Words

SEO is a step by step process and professional practice.

This practice of comprises of various techniques which help websites target people who use search engines for information.

This is done with search engine optimization by actually helping the search engines discover and recognise your website and its content as helpful for and targeted towards the information which people are searching for.

SEO is a focused yet large and widespread professional field which involves basics, fundamentals, techniques, guidelines, practices, platforms, etc.

What most learners and even those who practice it refer SEO as making websites rank top in Google. But it goes beyond.

As we said it is a practice and a process. This process, therefore starts with deciding to use search engines to reach your targeted audience, understanding who can be your audience and what they want or are searching for.

Then you build content targeted and optimized for the needs of your search audience.

And after this, we make our content visible on search engines. And after that we work to improve the visibility of our content or webpages or website in search engines.

This is done by making webpages or website rank higher. This is ranking.

But it does not stop here.

We need to keep on doing and improving. We need to keep our rankings and visibility. We also need to ensure that people click our websites and we work towards how more and more people like our content.

This is the basic outline of what SEO is, how it works, and what we do in it.

Yet, it is not hard to learn it, although it may seem like.

SEO does this with a detailed and inter-connected three step process of technical improvements, on page optimization and off page SEO marketing.

The first step or aim is to optimize a website and make it searchable and search engine friendly to gain visibility in search. This we do by making it accessible and readable through technical SEO and then make content relevant and attractive for its targeted users through on page optimization.

Then we make it appear higher in results, meaning improving its visibility, by increasing its authority and popularity through off page SEO techniques and content marketing.

So, SEO becomes an inter-linked and continuous process involving technical optimization, on page optimization, and off page SEO.

When we fully and properly optimize a website and increase its authority, then it appears something like this in search results.

Search engine optimization (SEO) can be simply explained as the process and steps to improve visibility of a website in the search results pages of major search engines. We all have searched for something on major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others.

We go to a search engine, we find a search bar and type in a query. What we see after that is a list of results on the page. These results are websites or web pages and the ones that we see first or are placed higher on that page are actually ranked at that place by those search engines.

The higher a result shows the higher is its ranking. This ranking is achieved through SEO. Also if you see the results then the text you see for each of the web page is also the result of SEO optimization.

SEO is an inbound marketing method and is one of the important channels of digital marketing.

It is the practice comprising of a set of techniques to target organic search users, help them see your website in the search and influence them to click on it and read your content.

SEO Explained with a Simple Example

Let us explain the definition in simple words.

When you want to find information online where do you go and how you find it?

You go to Google and type in the search bar what you are looking for.

You see some results in a second or so as you press enter.

You go through the list and click on one of those which you think can provide you right information or best answer.

Google gives you the list of websites that are best optimized for search. And in your case you saw the websites that were best optimized for your search query.

These are also the sites that improved their rankings over a period of time to appear on the first page of Google whenever anyone searches for this query or any other which is closely related to this in meaning.

This is what is search engine optimization OR optimization of websites for search engines which actually means for search queries that people type in on search engines.

SEO is a profession, a professional practice which you learn and then practice to rank websites on Google and other search engines.

When you learn SEO then you learn a set of techniques which professionals and experts use or follow to optimize websites step by step for their respective keywords or search queries.

How to Explain SEO Further in Simple Terms?

How do you explain SEO in detail yet in simple words to someone?

The simplest way to explain SEO to you is to explain what we covered in our summary.

The way we will explain SEO and its summary is like this:

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is defined as a professional practice and a process to build and improve organic presence of websites on search engines by following a set of techniques.

SEO is the practice that sets the optimization ball rolling to build presence & visibility to get ranking & traffic on search engines assisted by relevance and authority

Search engine optimization is the process and practice of specific steps and techniques of optimization which help a website build presence and visibility, and to help it further improve the visibility by improving rankings.

As the process SEO consists of five basic optimization components. These are also its practices, steps and techniques.

Let us understand it better practically.

SEO Meaning

Here is SEO in a nutshell for you.

Understand the meaning of SEO and you learn pretty much about search engine optimization.

This is what SEO means broadly.

There are things and steps that we do. These become its techniques. And all this we do as a step-by-step process. This is how and what you learn.

SEO means to step by step optimize a website to position it higher and higher on Google search engine result pages to make it visible for as many searchers as possible.

Introduction to SEO Techniques

As we have understood by now that doing SEO means increasing visibility on search engine like Google.

This is called search optimization or website optimization.

How we do SEO? How does search optimization of a website actually work?

This is how SEO works as a process of optimization in simple steps.

Technical SEO

You have a website which has some objective. It could be a blog, a company website or an E-Commerce site offering products or services, or a general information website.

You want people using search engines to see your website and read the content.

The first thing you do is get your website on Google by following certain steps which are called as submitting website to Google.

After this you follow the guidelines or steps to make your website technically optimized to appear on search engines.

Keyword Research

You start with finding out what all your target audience is searching for related to your content.

People search using words, terms or phrases. These are the keywords which if you target then you target and reach those searchers.

What you need to do first is find as many of such keywords to target relevant and interested audience on search engines.

This is called Keyword Research.

Content

Information is content. Websites and its pages present information though content. And it is the information that searchers are looking for.

You need to write about what you want to offer. Whether it is a blog or a product you need content. Searchers will be reading this content when they visit your site.

You need to cover your keywords with right and proper content.

Content is therefore the King.

You write content for your website and its pages.

On Page Optimization

After this you need to tell Google and also let the users know that you are talking about what they are searching for.

On Page Optimization is a way to present & say the right things at the right places. Optimization helps searchers to see the appropriate keywords you are using. This way they know what your page is talking about, and help them decide.

Optimization also allows a website to help or say to Google that your page is about such and such topic.

What you see in search results for each website is properly optimized & targeted key phrases at the right places. These places are optimization techniques and the most important ones are:

Off Page Optimization

Now you need to give your website some authority & power to make it rank.

This is how you secure votes of marketing, popularity and confidence to show Google that your website is genuine.

You built the website for your targeted users and want it to be there on search engines.

When you build backlinks then you show that your website is important for your business and for your users.

You show that you are willing to do all the things necessary to make your website appear & serve users on search engines.

And you should know that building genuine backlinks for a website also means to list your site on those other sites where it can be found by your users.

Link Building is also a way to market your website in a very particular way.

You create business profiles and list your website at places where your users can find it.

These places include business listing websites, business profiling websites and also social media platforms.

This is how we do Off Page SEO Optimization including link building.

SEO summary gives a brief description, overview as well as a proper introduction to search engine optimization.

This is also an easy way to understand and learn search engine optimization.

A proper summary which is also further explained in simple terms for beginners helps you understand and give insights into what is search engine optimization.

Description & Summary of SEO in Infographic

This SEO summary properly explains to you more about search engine optimization and its aspects.

Once you have read this brief description and summary of search engine optimization now is the time to simply explain SEO in detail.

SEO is One Important Digital Marketing Technique

SEO is one of the important techniques of digital marketing. It is one of the first and foremost strategy of marketing a business or website digitally or online.

This is why SEO is important for the business of your client and this is why you they should get their website optimized for search engines.

It is a unique way of marketing. It specifically targets people who use search engines. Here we aim to market a business or entity in front of as many people as possible by building and improving search visibility and position of the website.

SEO is one very specific way to do marketing online, and you need to have a website for this.

And a client may have any type of business or website, doing search engine optimization is helpful for all types of websites.

What SEO does

SEO means making a website ready to appear in search results in order to attract the attention of more and more interested searchers and more and more search queries.

The objective of SEO is to constantly improve the place or position of website for all its targeted keywords or queries in search engines so that it is visible to more and more searchers and therefore gets high number of clicks from these searches, resulting in increase in search traffic.

SEO Means Organic Results & Rankings & is Different from PPC

Google is the biggest search engine. There are two ways to target searches and searchers in Google. SEO and PPC.

SEO is the organic way to target search users and get clicks. SEO is therefore often called as organic SEO. And the organic search results are ranked by every search engine, not the PPC Ads.

PPC means pay per click. PPC in Google is called as adwords and now it is being called as Google Ads. In PPC you advertise your page to appear on the search engines. You just have to pay and your page appears as PPC ad.

PPD ads appear on top of the search pages, above the organic results. You can see few ads on the bottom of the page too.

SEO brings organic or free clicks. PPC gives you clicks where you pay for each click you get on your result.

Organic means that you do not pay for each and every click. You optimize, do the SEO process, make your keywords rank and keep getting clicks as long as you keep doing SEO and keep maintaining your rankings.

The Elements of SEO

The whole step by step SEO process comprises of the essential and fundamental elements.

It is around these elements only we do whatever we do in SEO. This is also its broad framework.

SEO is a Step by Step Process

SEO is a step by step process. It is actually a continuous process. It is methodical in the sense that you do step one then move on to step two and so on. And without doing each step properly you cannot get best results from it.

Optimization Fuels SEO

Almost everything we do (and learn) in SEO is about optimization. From technical, to keywords, content & on page, and to off page and link building. Everything we do is focused on how to optimize it better.

SEO is Dynamic and Evolving

In the earlier days of SEO, it was just the keywords and the content part was very negligible. Then came the importance of content. Then there were many different segregrations of searches and therefore the keywords. After there came the realization of user intent. Along with came mobile searches, voice search.

SEO is now more inclined towards satisfying users and how & what they want from search engines and search.

Therefore SEO is more like what the content covers and says and how relevant & best serves which users & how.

SEO has been changing and evolving and will keep up, in that way only.

Now you had a pretty good understanding of SEO. You also know by now that SEO works for websites but to target search engines only.

This is how it works primarily. But how does it target search engines and how exactly it works and how it helps and positions websites for search.

For this we understand how search engines work. This understanding gives us the finer points to better learn how SEO works as a digital marketing technique for targeting search engines presence, positioning and ranking.

Let us understand the system that makes search engines work.

How Search Engines Work and Drive SEO

SEO is the Best Way to Build Presence & Visibility on Search Engines: The Largest Platform to Connect with Relevant Audience

First of all, why we need to do SEO? It is because search engines provide a platform for websites to gain visibility there and by this reach search visitors looking for information related to what the website has to say.

Search engines have become the most popular online platform where everyone goes to find information they are looking for. That information is offered by the billions of websites.

Now search engines need to provide the best and most relevant information to every user which means showing the best of the websites first.

In order to show the best only, search engines developed methods to evaluate these websites and then display. To become relevant and best websites need to be better optimized and have authority and popularity. This is what SEO achieves for websites.

SEO is Driven by How Searchers Behave and Their Needs

How searchers behave and what they need is what drives search engines to present the results. And this in turn drives how we do SEO.

There are two important aspects of searcher's behaviour that influence both how search engines and SEO work.

Searchers often select from first few results and this actually drives everything from Search Engines to why we do SEO

SEO is driven by many aspects related to search engines, competition and users. However, one of the most important and obvious reasons why we do it which also shows importance of SEO is because searchers typically clicks on one of the ten results every search engine displays on the first page. Very less number of searchers go to the second page, even lesser to the third page, and so on.

So, to get clicks a website needs to be visible on the first page or closer to it, to get traffic from any keyword. That is the basic benchmark for doing SEO.

This means optimizing your website and building its authority to make it rank higher for more and more of the targeted keywords in order to drive higher and increasing number of search traffic.

They may search for various things

Often people who are looking for any information or want to buy something and are looking on search engines use different queries and look differently at the same need.

This is how we categorize the keywords. There are various needs of searchers and therefore different types of keywords.

SEO is Based and Targeted on How Search Engines Work

Basically, SEO keeps on changing and has been changing depending upon how Google (more importantly) and other search engines are evolving and developing.

From keywords stuffing to now more user experience focused, SEO has changed along with how and what search engines want to show information to the users.

It is all playing by the rules of Google, whether you like it or not. Although, we are now more focused on providing a better user experience and value, that is still as per what Google views as the best way to do so.

Of course, there is the BIG element of trying to remove and minimize spammy websites and spammy content from appearing high and more frequently in search results. This is being taken care by the various algorithms that are there and by constantly updating and upgrading these.