Search Engine Optimization, SEO for short, is a term that refers to programming, marketing and writing to try to get your web site ranked higher in search engine results for your given subject field.

For any web site to succeed, they need to be on the search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and naturally, the higher you rank, the more traffic you get.  This is monumentally important in the early days of a website when you’re attempting to build a following or customer base.  If you write about or sell widgets, then you want to be prominent in the searches when someone looks up widgets.

The majority of this is accomplished by other sites linking to the the site, using words that are relevant to your subject, using tags and on and on.  It is very tedious, but important.  Unless you run a website, it is nothing to concern yourself with, but if you do, you will become obsessed with it. It is another one of those things people just assume you know when they use it in a senteance.