The acronym SEO stands for 'Search Engine Optimization', which really just means getting ranked well in search engines like Google, Yahoo & Bing. Search engines use advanced algorithms to determine where to rank web pages for specific keyword phrases searchers use to look for information or products. A webmaster (aka website owner) can 'optimize' his website to rank well for any given keyword phrase. To get ranked well you can optimize your website (or web pages within your website) both on-page and off-page.

On-Page Optimization

This refers to what you can do on your website itself to get ranked well for a specific keyword phrase. Search engines analyze and rank each web page within a website independently. So a webmaster can optimize each web page for a different keyword phrase (or keyword phrases). To keep it simple, you would optimize a web page by making sure the keyword phrase you would like it to rank for is used frequently within the meta tags and textual content of that web page.

Off-Page Optimization

Off-page optimization really just refers to the backlinks your web page has from external websites (websites other than the one containing the web page). If you are optimizing your web page for a specific keyword phrase, it is logical to get backlinks from external web pages that are topically related to your web page. It is also helpful if the anchor text of those backlinks contain the keywords you are trying to rank for.