The question “What is SEO?” is the one I’m asked most often by family and friends (sometimes phrased as “so what exactly is it that you do?”). In some ways, it’s really easy to answer, but dig a little deeper and it gets a bit more complicated. So let’s start with the simple bit.

What does SEO mean?

The meaning of SEO is literally Search Engine Optimization. The ‘z’ there is usually kept in because it was originally a US term so has the US English spelling, but in the UK it can be spelled Search Engine Optimisation.

So what is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization is the name for the discipline of getting websites to rank near the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), which to most people means the pages you get after you’ve typed something into Google.

So how do you do that, then?

Well… it depends. But Search Engine Optimization experts like myself, who often just call themselves SEOs, have a number of methods that they will use and adapt over time in relation to how Google changes its algorithm – the big impossible system that defines how web pages are ranked in SERPs.

For example, blog pages like this one used to be a terrific way to help a site such as mine to rank for the phrase “what is SEO” when people typed that into Google, but now that we have AI Overviews answering these types of searches, known as informational queries, they are a bit redundant unless you are also targeting citations in generative AI results using GEO.

Wait… What’s GEO? This is getting confusing now.

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization, and it (along with Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO), and more) is creeping into the lexicon on online marketing.

But I am firmly of the belief that visibility in generative search is just SEO.

• Structured, helpful content
• Pages that load fast and make sense to eyes and bots
• Expert answers that match intent
• Authority built over time

Essentially it comes down to something I’ve put at the heart of what I’ve been doing for years: 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗴.

𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗴, despite the name, doesn’t mean immunity from whatever the future holds – in this case, bulletproof rankings or protection from whatever chaos Google throws at us next. That would be nice, but it’s not how this game works.

It also doesn’t mean crystal ball-gazing, panicking when some new innovation starts making headlines, or reinventing yourself as soon as someone floats the latest acronym.

What it does mean is reading the signals from Google using the tools available, having the experience and knowledge to understand how to navigate the prevailing winds, and building strategies that work for today and are the most likely to hold up tomorrow.

It’s just SEO done properly.

That makes sense.

My pleasure.