What is SEO?

[tito]

i know what it abbriviates, but what is it exactly?

[tpettyaddiction]

Search Engine Optimization! Exactly what this thread is called.

[memetrader]

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is anything that improves the internal and external aspects of a website in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines.

The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN. If your site cannot be found by these search engines or your content cannot be put into their databases then you might just as well not exist.

Be careful because 99% of the SEO advice you can read on the web is recycled crap. There are only two reliable and up to date professional tutorials on the subject that I know of http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization and http://www.seo-blog.com/tutorial.php

Read those and you can't go wrong!

Good luck.