SEO, stands for search engine optimization.  Search engine optimization is how we manipulate a website so that we can tell the search engines what we are about.   

When a search engine comes into a website it does not see all the pretty pictures, or the colors the way we have it laid out.  The Search engines mainly sees the code of the website.  Google and other search engines start by looking at the title tag.  From that tag they get their information about what the website is about.  A proper and complete title tag starts the process of identifying what keywords we want to show up for in the search results.  After it reads the title tag it then starts down the page through the code to identify whether or not we match what we said we were about.  For instance, let’s say we are about cars.  When Google comes into the website it reads the title tag, if the title tag has the keyword cars in it then it continues on to the rest of the site and sees how much of the website is relevant to the keyword cars.  Google says that in order to be optimized, we must have between4% and 9% keyword density. That means that if all the information on the site equals 100% between four and nine percent of that page has to be made up of the word cars.  This doesn’t mean that we need to go in and write the word cars over and over again on the site.  This would get you in trouble for spam.  What we do is take that keyword, and we embed it into the H1 Heading, alt text, first paragraph, last paragraph, etc.  We do different things to that keyword that carry different weight in the results. For example, having a keyword in an H1 heading carries more weight than just having the keyword in the paragraph.  Having keywords behind images carries more weight than say having a keyword in a sentence.  These factors added together increase our keyword density. After Google searches the title tag, and it continues on to the rest of the site, it is trying to reinforce what the title tag says.  As long as it can do this you can achieve a healthy bill on your optimization. Things like meta-tags, even though they may not be read and utilized the way they used to be can still be vital to reinforce the title tag.

Most people make SEO more complicated than it needs to be.  Google and other search engines provide you with a clear pathway on how they expect the page to be optimized.  As long as you follow the rules, which are also called algorithms. then you can achieve first page rankings.  The trick to this is, that the rules change constantly, and are always evolving. E very six months or so Google and some other search engines make major algorithm changes with fancy names such as panda, and Penguin, etc.  All this means is that the rules are evolving, so that they can deliver the most relevant results in their search engine, and keep their customers happy.  If you want to stay on the first page, your site must also evolve and follow these new rules and changes.