SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a method of getting your SERP (Search Engine Result Pages) ranking improved in Google and other search engines. Idea behind optimizing a site to improve SERP ranking is to get organic search engine traffic.

If you search for any specific term on a search engine, one thing you will notice is that there are hundreds of millions of search results for some search terms. Out of all the search results, some show on the first page, some on second page, and some don’t show up at all. It is only natural that more people will click the top results which means getting listed on the top brings traffic and revenue (traffic = revenue) for a site owner.

Search engines have algorithm that they use to rank a site based on a search term or keyword. Search engine robots or spiders crawl the internet and visit all the sites on a regular basis. During their crawl, robots gather several crucial data that are used to rank a site based on one or more specific terms. How search engine robots find a site to crawl is a whole different topic and will be discussed on a separate article.

In addition to the gathered data from the site, search engines also look at the votes a site received from other sites. Votes are simply a link from one site to another. More links a site gets from other sites, better chance it has to get ranked high on search engines.

Once search engines have enough data from both crawl and backlinks, a ranking then is assigned for a site against its competitors. Basically what you need to do is to make sure that you have done proper on-page optimization to get good score from robot crawl and make sure you have lot of backlinks form other sites.

Since SEO can get a site ranked high on search engines which brings traffic and revenue, it is highly sought by webmasters and site owners who are interested in earning revenue form their sites. It also created an entire SEO service provider industry where SEO experts and consultants providing their SEO services to webmasters and site owners.