This article is going to spell out, once and for all, what the hell SEO stands for and means. This is really for the amateurs, the guy with a website who isn't exactly sure why the hell he shelled out good cash for a quality site that doesn't seem to be getting any traffic, or the girl who has watched her relevancy drop from among the better Google results to the 20th page and has been informed that he/she definitely needs to get familiar with SEO.

Sorting out what SEO Means to Everyone

First of all, this means Search Engine Optimization. Optimizing your business's site so that it places higher when someone searches for you, or for general keywords related to the business you run. This is generally done in two ways: through an organic method, and by using paid search. This latter example means paying Google to put your little ad on all the different venues it runs, from the main Google search results page, or into various other contextually relevant areas (Gmail, YouTube, etc).

These are generally known as AdWords campaigns and do differ in price. Google also takes care of a huge amount of banner ads on other sites. All of these things need to be considered as classic advertising, only with the extra plus that you find the customers who are looking for your precise product or service.

It's like that classic method of putting big ads in the yellow pages in whatever part was relevant, only now times have changed and the yellow pages aren't exactly as relevant as they once were.

What is Paid Search?

Simple enough? A good Internet marketing firm will take the reins for your paid search, telling you how to run ad campaigns and possibly even doing your ads for you. They'll give you complete analysis (when you see how incredible Google's tracking is and the amount of information you can glean from it, your mind will be blown).

Searching Organically?

So what about this organic search you've heard about? That's all about getting your site placed high in Google's normal search engine. It happens with good content, optimized code, and building rich, relevant links, plus a lot of other variables. To reiterate, a good SEO agency will do this for you, and fundamentally, will do it honestly.

There are many legendary ways to 'game' Google, and eventually they are all caught onto and banned. And the people doing them are placed on a kind of blacklist (hence the black-hat terminology you might see). So the SEO marketing firm you choose needs to quite clearly go out of its way not to engage in those practices.

Think of SEO Agencies Like Ad Agencies

Here's how to consider SEO: they're like an ad agency that comes in, fixes up your brand to the point where it's even more marketable (optimization), and then gets your product/ad seen by the customs that need to see it, and ramps up the amount of online chatter and links about what you're selling, just like ad agencies of old would try and get newspaper articles written about their clients.

Every thing's starting to fall into place, no? SEO is a niche absolutely overflowing with jargon because that's just how it developed, but then again, the world of publicity is the same. You just need to get your feet wet, and you'll understand how much better your online presence can be.

Why There's No Way You Can Ignore SEO

Consider SEO like a nice, modern branding agency doing something more specific in a market that's still finding its contours. Many of the classic tenants of advertising still apply, but as the market is altering with breakneck speed when it comes to where and how users get their information and look to spend more of their money online than off, SEO is something you are going to have to brush up on if you're going to take full advantage of every business opportunity available to you online.