What does SEO stand for?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. At its core, SEO is the act of creating helpful content that meets the searcher’s intent so that you can rise to the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages) and get more organic traffic to your website or Google Business Profile. However, within the world of SEO you have white hat, blue hat, grey hat, and black hat SEO.
Not everyone is simply trying to create helpful content.
Article by Colette Nichol, Story Strategist, SEO Expert, and Solo Filmmaker
In fact, there are techniques that are entirely unhelpful that do work because the SEOs are exploiting parts of the algorithm that can be gamed.
These techniques evolve as Googles algorithms and search technology evolves. And Google is constantly trying to knock down the low-quality pages that are gaming the system.
They achieve this with varying degrees of efficacy.
Is Google the only search engine that matters?
While there are many search engines, Google is still the leading search engine by a long shot. So when you’re doing SEO, you’re usually focused on how to get to positions 1, 2 or 3 on the first page of Google.
The higher you are on the first page of Google for multiple relevant searches, the more organic traffic you’ll get. And as long as your traffic is relevant to your business, and you have a solid website and sales system, then you’ll be able to increase revenue consistently with your organic traffic.
However, as of 2025, there are two equally important methods of search that shouldn’t be ignored:
- LLMs (Large Language Models)
- YouTube
YouTube is actually the second largest search engine.
Meanwhile, LLMs such as ChatGPT and Perplexity are beginning to get used as search tools (despite the fact that they were not designed for that and give very poor answers).
In our business, we’ve found that prospects who find our clients’ businesses via LLMs such as ChatGPT tend to be very qualified and close easily. This is likely due to the excessive trust that consumers place in LLM results as well as the “relationship” that some people build with their LLMs. (More on all of that another day!)
Basically, what you need to know is that if you’re doing SEO, you should also be optimizing for LLMs and getting your butt onto YouTube.
If you have limited time, start with traditional SEO and add YouTube within 6 to 12 months.
How Does SEO Work?
Whether or not you’re able to get a page or post to the top of Google depends on many many ranking factors.
“Ranking factors” are basically elements in the many algorithms that make up Google’s complex retrieval system.
If you think of Google as basically the world’s most hardworking librarian, you’ll start to get a better idea of how SEO works. Somebody comes into the library and says, “Hey, I need helping figuring out this thing.”
The librarian, then turns around and wracks her brain, trying to figure out what the absolute best possible book would be to give this person. In the case of our intrepid Google librarian, she’s trying to surface the best possible pages for the searcher.
But what makes a search result the “best”?
A search result could be considered “the best” possible result if it truly answers the searcher’s intent and provides unique and valuable information or actionable steps so that the searcher can get what they need and move on with life.
Our librarian is trying to be helpful, and she doesn’t want someone to have to keep coming back and doing the same request over and over.
She wants to be able to hand you a book or a couple books and have fulfilled your needs.
It’s the same with Google search. They don’t want to show you search results that don’t help you (in most cases).
Can you have the best content and still not rank at the top?
You can have what you think is the best, most helpful content and still not rank at the top.
That’s because there are specific factors that help Google’s algorithms identify whether your content is valuable or not. And it’s not subjective. An algorithm is just a bunch of numbers. Meaning, there’s no magical creature inside the internet judging whether your content is good or bad.
Instead, there are ranking factors which can push your content up or down. And, of course, these ranking factors can change. Or someone else can come along and do better than you.
More Related Articles
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⭐ Increase Targeted Organic Traffic to Your Website with SEO
⭐ How to Find a Good SEO Consultant? (And Do I Need One?)
⭐ Quick Guide to SEO Marketing for Small Businesses
About the Author
Hi! I’m Colette Nichol. I’m a solo filmmaker, SEO expert, story strategist, and digital marketer based out of rainy Vancouver, Canada. I’ve been helping local expertise-driven businesses and global brands since 2014 when I founded Story Envelope Media.
In 2017, I started applying SEO to my work with clients and in my own business. The results were extraordinary, and I got obsessed!
If you’re interested in working together, please reach out. I’d love to hear about your business goals to see if we can help.
We currently take on a maximum of one new client per month and are typically booked 3-months in advance, so please reach out early.
