Meaning & use
SEO
Last updated
Meaning
abbreviationuncountable
Search engine optimization: the work of making a website more likely to appear high in search engine results.
Grammar: Used as a noun; no plural. Often before another noun: SEO strategy, SEO expert.
Patterns
- do SEO
- improve SEO
- SEO for something
The company hired a specialist to improve its SEO.
Good SEO helped the small blog reach more readers.
She works in SEO and spends her days analyzing search rankings.
Common combinations
- SEO strategy
- Their SEO strategy focuses on long articles and fast page loads.
- SEO expert
- We asked an SEO expert to review the new site.
- improve SEO
- Adding clear headings can improve SEO.
- SEO ranking
- The update hurt the site's SEO ranking for several keywords.
Synonyms and how they differ
- search optimization
- A more general term that can include search engines and other search tools; SEO is the standard abbreviation for the web.
Word family
- SEOer noun
- Informal word for a person who does SEO.
Commonly confused: SEO or CEO?
SEO vs CEO
CEO is the chief executive officer of a company; SEO is about search engines.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'SEO' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'SEO' is an uncountable noun, so 'She has strong SEO skills' works. 'SEO' is not a verb, so 'to SEO' is wrong; it has no plural, so 'two SEOs' is wrong; and 'the SEO of the report' does not make sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “SEO”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.