What is SEO?

- People ask me what I do, and I explain that I write about SEO, and then they look puzzled, and I say, "That's search engine optimization," and then they'll still be puzzled because no one really kind of knows what that means. Search engine optimization is very easily explained to them by saying, "Well when you do a Google search, "you know those top results that come up? "I help increase the odds that your content shows up there," and that's what SEO is all about. Although SEO has really changed and shaped and has gone beyond just being showing up number one in Google or from words that somebody has typed in on their keyboard.

These days SEO is also about showing up because you have good video content that may be in the top results on Google or in the top results on Bing. Or you have good local listings that are going to be showing up there, or perhaps news content. In fact it can be that you're not even were thinking about showing up in the top results on Google, but whether or not you're doing the top results on something like Yelp, or perhaps it's even changing in that you've spoken to your Amazon Echo and asked for something and it's come back with an answer.

That answer that you get on Google, on Yelp, from the Echo, that's SEO. It's understanding how these sources, any kind of tool is getting the information, and what you do to increase the visibility for your own company to show up there.