We all know what happens when you type a search query into a search engine and hit “enter”: You get a list of search results that are relevant to your search term.

Those results pages appear as a result of search engine optimization (SEO). In a nutshell, SEO is a method of optimizing (enhancing the effectiveness of) your content for the search engines, in order to help itrank higher than content from other sitesthat target the same search terms.

Alpha Bee Design gives a clear picture of the SEO process:

Step by step, then, SEO is when:

According to Redevolution, Google displays web pages in their search results based on the authority and relevance of the page to enhance the user experience. How does it measure authority and relevance?

Google determinesthe relevance of your pageby analyzing its content based on several factors, including where and how often you use certain words in that piece of content.

Google measuresauthorityby the number of links pointing to that page and how trustworthy those links are.