SEO – Search Engine Optimisation all about trying to be one of those websites that appear in the search engines list of useful websites.
The list of useful websites is called a SERP which stands for Search Engine Results Page. I have no idea why they didn’t simply call it a list of useful websites.
You will maybe here people talk about being on page one of Google or getting ranked #1 and what they mean is they found a way to make the search engine think they were the best result for that search, at that time, in that place, for that searcher.
We are going to dig deeper into how search engines work and how you can work with them to optimise your own website throughout this course.
For now think of search engine optimisation like being picked first for the sports team.
If you are super good at the sport, naturally you get picked first. If you are alright at the sport and super popular then you’ll probably be pretty high up the list too. If you happen to be rubbish at the sport and make enemies everywhere you go then you’ll likely be one of the last to get picked.
Search engines create their list of best websites in a very similar way.
They want a good website for the searcher, one that is popular and doesn’t cause any trouble.
If you want to look a bit deeper into how a search engine results page appears then have a look at this guide from Yoast SEO