So, the internet is a giant connection of websites. It's so big, that we couldn't possibly find anything of value to us by typing in any given site's address.
So, search engines came along. Search engines are tools that allow us to type "something" we want to find on the internet and then return ranked results that the search engine thinks are relevant to our "something".
So, if you have a website that you want people to find, you have to "rank" high in relevance to the "something" that a person typed into a search engine.
So, it became important to people with websites to figure out how search engines were "ranking" websites and implement those "things" on their sites so that their sites would appear at the top of the search engine results pages. In other words, they Optimized their site for the Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).
So, a competition was born between the search engines and website owners. In order for a search engine to be valuable, and therefore used, it has to return results that its users find "relevant". On the other hand, website owners are trying to do "things" to their sites to convince the search engines that they are relevant. But the search engines figure out that they are being "tricked" and find new ways to judge the relevance of the websites. And round and round we go!
It's really a lot like dating (please disregard my inherent cynicism). Guys tell girls what they think they want to hear (website owners). Girls have to filter out the b.s. to find a guy that they think meets what they are looking for in a guy (search engine). Guys must adapt to find new ways to convince girls of their worth.
So, there you have it. Search engine optimization in a nutshell. As I stated above, this is an extreme oversimplification. Check back for future posts to learn about growing your practice with SEO techniques.
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