What Does SEO Stand For and What is SEO?
Posted on 10. Nov, 2009 by Lyz in blog, seo
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, or optimization depending on where in the world you come from, I’m in the UK so I’ll be sticking with the former.
What is SEO?
SEO is the practice of making your site as magnetic as possible to search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing with the aim of achieving high website rankings.
Why is search engine optimisation important?
The ultimate aim of any website is to make money – whether by selling products directly via ecommerce (selling stuff online) or by indirectly selling your services. Everyone knows that to make sales, and so money, you need customers and to get customers in the online world you need traffic (also know as visitors) on your website.
Why do I need high website rankings?
The most sustainable way to get traffic to your website is to have high website rankings in the search engines for words associated with your business (also know as keyword phrases). When someone types in a particular phrase into a search engine they are most likely to click on the websites listed at the top of the first page – they may go to page two but it’s unlikely, they’re far more likely to try a different search.
And so it follows that the higher your ranking for a given keyword phrase, the more traffic you get and the more money you’re likely to make. Studies have found that the higher your ranking, the higher the conversion rate of the web traffic you receive from that keyword. This is because you’re perceived as being more relevant, authoritative and trustworthy if you’re ranked in position one or two on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
How do I get a high website ranking?
The way you get high website rankings is to perform seo on your website. There are many aspects to search engine optimisation and you can learn to do it yourself or pay an seo consultant /professional to carry out the work for you.
Whichever path you take, it’s important that you understand the basics of how search engines work so that you can ensure you gain maximum advantage from your site. There are many ways to improve your search engine rankings, too numerous to go in to here, but if you scout around this site you’ll find plenty of ideas – you could start with the related posts listed below.
If you already have a website that’s not doing so well in the SERPs then try doing a free website optimisation check – it’ll likely highlight the problem areas that are preventing you from achieving those high website rankings you need.

Give your website an MOT today… 
Thanks. Really interesting article.
Hi. I treasured to drop you a quick note to verbalize my thanks. I’ve been observing your blog for a month or so and have plucked up a heap of fabulous information as well as enjoyed the way you’ve structured your site. I am seeking to run my own blog however I think its too general and I would like to focus more on smaller topics.
Not too many people pay care to SEO when it comes to their blogs, I suppose generally because they might not understand it. Numerous people may grasp the onsite SEO work, but maybe not the offsite techniques.. I am glad you included that in your post as well. I am also happy you let individuals know SEO involves time. All too ofttimes I experience clients that demand my services that think SEO occurs over night. It is something that takes time and work.