SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 代表搜寻引擎优化，而对于大部分的人来说， SEO 能为他们带来：
对于许多新手来说，在还没完全搞懂 SEO 之前，可能就已经不小心误入歧途或是觉得太艰深困难而放弃了。SEO 的技术从白帽、黑帽、灰帽、反向连结、内容优化…等等，太多太多需要学习了。
而这不仅仅是对于新手来说很困难，对于经验丰富的行销人员来说更是一种挑战。由于 Google 演算法的更动非常的快速，因此对于一个变化如此快速的技术，行销人员必须要不断学习才能跟上脚步。这次 Google 的更新是哪些？下一个 Google 演算法更新的因素是什么？该用哪些新的技巧与策略来执行…等等。
最终我们每天都会在深夜当中扪心自问：
到底什么是 SEO，我在做的事情是真的有效的吗？
参考专家的意见吧！
如果你还不了解 Whoops SEO，我们提供了 SEO 教学，网站当中提供了许多免费的 SEO 知识与资讯，这些宝贵的教学资源是我们提供优秀的搜寻引擎服务的一种自信。
Google 演算法更新如此快速，比起你一个人去摸索，不如参考众多 SEO 大神的专业意见，你肯定能从其中找到适合自己的见解，因此我们今天统整了许多 SEO 专家们的意见，让各位专家来告诉你「什么是 SEO？」。
统整 40 多个专家意见后，可分成以下三大类：
让我们来看看每位专家的不同见解吧！
1. SEO 是为了搜寻引擎而优化网站
从搜寻引擎问世以来至今 2019 年也有 30 年左右了，但是网路当中所讨论的 SEO 大多仍然都是停留在以往的传统 SEO 优化，因此在这几年搜寻引擎演算法不断更迭之后，才会不断听到大量的人在说「搜寻引擎优化已死」。
不过，真正灭亡的并不是优化本身，而是过时的优化方式。
如今最新的优化方式已截然不同，透过搜寻引擎演算法的优化，我们的 SEO 优化方式也得不断升级，最终的目的都一样：在搜寻结果（SERP）当中获得更高的排名。
SEO is the process of getting content to be crawled, indexed and ranked well in Google and other search engines.Barry Schwartz, CEO RustyBrick
RustyBrick 的创办人 Barry Schwartz 认为，SEO 是在 Google 与其他搜寻引擎当中，让内容被抓取、索引和得到更好的排名当中的过程。
Mass user acquisition via search engines.Nick Eubanks, Founder and CEO From the Future
From the Future 的创办人 Nick Eubanks 认为，SEO 就是透过搜寻引擎来获得庞大的客户。
SEO is the practice of positioning websites for higher visibility in search engines. When done correctly through best practices, testing, and hard effort, it typically works. Sometimes it causes headaches. May lead to industry friendships and a life‐long love affair with all things search.Cyrus Shepard, Founder Zyppy SEO
Zyppy SEO 的创办人 Cyrus Shepard 认为，SEO 是实践网站定位以提高网站在搜寻引擎中的能见度，通过最佳的实践、测试和努力工作，在正常的情况之下是可以成功的提升排名。
SEO is the act of optimizing information for increased visibility on search engines.
This isn’t specific to a type of search engine, type of content, or even a website. If someone needs to find information online and someone else wants to appear for that search then SEO is the act of helping the content creator reach the searcher.
Along the way SEO touches on lots of other disciplines, but this is the simplest explanation. We identify what someone is looking for and work to appear for that query.Rhea DrysdaleOutspoken Media
Outspoken Media 的 Rhea Drysdale 认为，SEO 是为了增加在搜寻引擎的能见度而进行资讯优化的行为。
这并不特定于某一种搜寻引擎、内容类型或是网站，当有人在网路上搜寻某一个关键字且其他人想要这个关键字被看见时，SEO 就是帮助内容创造者能够接触到相对应的搜寻者的行为。
SEO 一路上牵涉了许多领域的专业，但最简单的解释就是，我们确定某人正在寻找某个关键字，而我们优化是为了能在这关键字搜寻结果中出现。
In its simplest form, SEO is about making a search engine’s job easier to find your website, understand the content of your website and score your website in terms of popularity and relevance. This can be achieved through many different activities including technical changes, website content, PR, UX and providing the best product and service out there.Carl Hendy, Ecommerce & SEO Consultant carlhendy.com
carlhendy 的 Carl Hendy 认为，简单来说，SEO 是指让搜寻引擎能更容易找到你的网站，且更了解你的网站内容，并根据受欢迎的程度与相关性对你的网站进行评分。这个过程可以透过许多不同的行为来改善，包括技术的改变、网站内容的改变、网站权重的提升、使用者体验的的改变，以及提供更佳的产品和服务来优化。
SEO is Search Engine Optimization, the act of optimizing your website to show up higher in the search engines. At the core, the two biggest ranking factors for this are content and links, matching users’ expectation for that content, and being perceived as authoritative enough for the search engines to return. As SEOs, we all at a basic level optimize for these things. At a more advanced level, we think about and optimize for the 200+ factors Google has also mentioned are important to them. But if you focus on just those two, you’ll return quite highly (knock on wood)!Ross Hudgens, Founder and CEO Siege Media
SEO 就是搜寻引擎优化，优化你的网站然后在搜寻引擎当中显示在更高的位置。核心重点在于两个排名因素：内容和外部连结，匹配使用者对内容的期望，使得你的内容拥有足够的权威性。作为 SEO 专家，我们都在基础层面优化这些东西，在更高的层面中，我们会考虑并优化其他 200 种对于 Google 来说非常重要的因素。但是，如果你专注于优化内容与外部连结，你的回报会非常高！
That said:
There’s so much more to SEO than SEO.
For example:
If you publish amazing content on your website, people are going to link to it. Which can significantly boost your rankings.
Is “content” SEO? Technically not. But it’s still a key part of SEO.
Another example:
Let’s say your site has horrible UX. And people tend to bounce from your site because they can’t figure out what to do. Thanks to RankBrain, these “User Experience Signals” can hurt your rankings.
Is “UX” SEO? No. But it’s a must if you want to rank in 2018.
One more example:
Let’s say you work hard to create a HUGE brand (like Mailchimp). Based on your brand alone, you’ll get links from authority news sites… and tons of people will search for your brand in Google. Both of which can help your SEO.
Is “branding” SEO? It’s not. But it’s the ultimate SEO superhack.
To summarize:
SEO is anything that helps your site get higher rankings in search engines. It includes the traditional stuff (like on‐page SEO). But to rank in 2018 you also need branding, UX, design, content and writing skills.Brian Dean, Founder Backlinko
Backlinko 的 Brian Dean 认为，Search Engine Optimization 从字面上就清楚明了的显示了，SEO 就是为了搜寻引擎而优化你的网站。
这表示你必须长长期/定期/持续的执行以下任务：
有许多部分并不是单单在 SEO 技术当中，举例来说，你在网站当中撰写相当优秀的内容，别人透过各种管道发现你的文章并分享、连结，这样你的排名就会提高。
在这个例子当中「内容」是重点，它并不是 SEO 的技术，但它仍是获得高排名的重要关键因素。
另外一个例子来说，假如你的网站非常丑，使用者体验非常糟糕，一般人往往会直接跳离你的网站，因为大部分的人决定喜不喜欢网站的第一眼是看整体网站的设计，而不是内容。Google RankBrain 实现让这些「使用者体验」的信号能够成为影响 SEO 排名的因素。
在 2018 年甚至 2019 年当中要获得排名，「使用者体验」势必是关键因素，不是单纯的「SEO」技术，而是这些其他的信号因素。
这里再举一个例子，假设你努力创建一个巨大的品牌（假设是 Mailchimp），仅根据你的品牌，你就能够获得权威网站（如：新闻网站）的外部连结，许多人也会在 Google 当中直接搜寻你的品牌，这两个方式都能帮助你获得更好的 SEO。
这裏的关键在于「品牌」而非实际的 SEO 技术，但品牌对于 SEO 来说的效益是超乎你想像的。
总结来说，SEO 是帮助你的网站在搜寻引擎中获得更高的排名，除了包括传统的优化（像是内容优化与程式码优化…等等）。想要在 2018 年 甚至是 2019 年当中获得更高的排名，你还必须要具备品牌、使用者体验、网站设计、有效内容、写作技巧…等等。
SEO is the process of helping search engines find the content on your website that best matches the intent of a user’s query.Eli Schwartz, Director of SEO & Growth SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey 的 Eli Schwartz 认为，SEO 是帮助搜寻引擎在你的网站上找到最符合使用者在搜寻某个意图的内容时的一个过程。
To me, SEO is the process of optimizing your website, content, and assets in conjunction with building awareness of your content through links, mentions, etc.Chris Makara, Interactive Marketing & Digital Strategist chrismakara.com
Chrismakara 的 Chris Makara 认为，对他来说，SEO 就是优化你的网站、内容和资产的过程，同时透过外部连结、提及…等等方式来建立搜寻引擎对你网站的认识。
Whether you love it or you hate it, SEO is the difference between having a successful website which ranks highly, attracts a ton of traffic and is extremely authoritative and a website that barely ranks and maybe gets a few hundred visitors a month. But what exactly is SEO? It is the optimization of a website to rank higher in the search engines which in turn attracts more traffic to your site.
The more effort you put into your SEO, the higher you rank, the more qualified traffic you get which equals more income for you. But how do you get started?
Well: Before you do anything else — be sure to perform a complete SEO audit of your site. How? Just use the Ahrefs Site Audit tool to do the hard work and then you can work through and fix any problems you may have. That will help you to craft the perfect SEO foundation to build on step by step while teaching you the fundamentals of SEO in a practical way rather than reading waffle like this!Matthew Woodward, Internet Marketer & SEO matthewwoodward.co.uk
MatthewWoodward 的 Matthew Woodward 认为，无论你喜欢或是不喜欢，搜寻引擎优化是一项能够成功的将网站排名变高，吸引大量流量的方式，和已经成功且具有权威性的网站不同之处在于，一个知名网站几乎没有排名，每个月可能仅仅只有几百个流量。那究竟什么是 SEO？网站的优化就是在搜寻引擎当中获得更高的排名，进而获得更多的流量进入网站当中。
当你在搜寻引擎优化的领域当中投入的经历越多，通常你的排名也就会越高，你所得到的流量就会越多，结果就是你的收入也会随之更多。
但这一切该如何开始？
在你开始之前，一定要确保对网站进行过完整的 SEO 检视，透过 ProRank.Tech 来快速扫瞄一下你的网站，就可以初步得到一些报告，接着你就可以根据发现的问题进行改善。这就可以帮你逐步的完成优化网站的目的，透过了解与实践，开始改变。
SEO is organizing a website and its content so that search engines can crawl, read, index and properly rank it for relevant queries. The purpose is to get your message in front of people who are looking for it. If you sell shoes, it probably doesn’t help you much to get in front of someone who is looking for zoning regulations.
SEO is understanding the different SERP discovery opportunities that search engines provide — for example, Top Stories, Knowledge Panels, Featured Snippets, Maps etc – and making sure that your site is structured to be displayed in those features for relevant queries.
An SEO practitioner can range from your classic webmaster – a person who does virtually everything on a website – to someone who is very narrowly focused, for example, a person who only works on certain aspects of structured data.
There are many disciplines that impact SEO but being a good SEO practitioner doesn’t mean you have to master all, or any, of those disciplines, just like being a good marketer doesn’t require you to be a good copywriter or art director. An SEO practitioner’s job is to work with people in other functions to help them understand how they can affect organic search outcomes, directly or indirectly, as well as to learn what requirements and limits they work under that could impact the effectiveness of SEO.Mats Tolander, Technical Search Engine Optimization Director Perficient
Perficient 的 Mats Tolander 认为，SEO 是组织一个网站与内容，以利让搜寻引擎可以抓取、阅读、索引与对当相关关键字被查询时进行正确的排名显示。它的目的在于将你的内容正确的让所有在搜寻的人都可以看见。如果你卖鞋子，那对于在寻找买手机的人来说可能就没有太大的帮助。
SEO 就是在试图理解搜寻引擎的规则，同时在不同的 SERP 结果中发现各种显示排名的机位，例如：热门故事、知识面板、精选片段、我的商家…等等，确保你的网站结构能够在所有 Google 提供的功能当中显示出现。
有很多方面都能影响搜寻引擎优化，作为一名优秀的搜寻引擎优化人员并不代表必须掌握所有的这些因素，就好像一名优秀的行销人员并不会被要求同时成为一位优秀的文案写手或是艺术总监，每一个人的专业不同，因此 SEO 专家和其他人合作是帮助他们了解该如何去影响（优化）自然搜寻结果。
SEO is a wide topic to discuss. One instance of this is when you type in “SEO” on the internet and you get unlimited results from different sources. Simply put, SEO is how you manipulate search engines to take your website to the first page of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) while you overtake other websites within the same niche or market through putting out fresh, informative content and being a trusted authority in your niche or market.Sean Si, Founder and CEO SEO Hacker
SEO Hacker 的 Sean Si 认为，SEO 是一个非常广泛的问题，其中一个例子就是，当你在网路上搜寻「搜寻引擎优化」时，你可以透过不同的来源来获得各种结论。简言之，SEO 就是你如何操纵搜寻引擎优化，使你的网站达到搜寻结果第一页的过程。
What is SEO? I guess from my point of view it’s ensuring that a website is technically correct in the search engines eyes, so checking Server Headers, Speed (caching or even if AMP is needed), to cannibalization and canonicalization issues, all the way down to HTML markup and site architecture.David Naylor, Director of Digital Bronco
Bronco 的 David Naylor 表示，什么是 SEO？从他的角度来看，它就是确保网站在搜寻引擎的眼中是否正确，因此检查网站的标题、网页速度（快取或是使用 AMP）、和结构化的问题，从这一值到 HTML 的标记和网站架构。
To me, SEO is the process of getting a brand more organic exposure from search engines. More often than not, this means getting “higher rankings” in Google, but for some businesses, this just isn’t feasible. Google’s algorithm has gotten increasingly complex (and biased) and some websites will never get rankings for certain keywords. However, that doesn’t disqualify your site — there are still opportunities for exposure through Google using platforms like YouTube, SlideShare or even guest posting on authority websites. For example, if you Google “white hat link building” and you’ll see my Ahrefs guest post ranking there. That post has driven a ton of exposure for my agency.Ryan Stewart, Partner theblueprint.training
Theblueprint.Training 的 Ryan Stewart 表示，对他来说，搜寻引擎优化是让搜寻引擎更自然的曝光品牌的这一个过程，一般情况下，这意味着在 Google 获得「更高的排名」，但对于某些企业来说，这行不通。因为 Google 的演算法越来越複杂（且具有偏见），某些网站可能永远不可能获得想要的关键字排名。但是，你仍然可以使用 Youtube 或是 SlideShare 等平台进行网站的曝光，甚至可以在各种权威网站（新闻网站…等等）进行文案与新闻稿的投放。举例来说，如果你在 Google 搜寻「google eat」，你可以看到我们在其他平台当中发表的前导文章，这篇文章对我们的品牌曝光具有一定的帮助。
SEO is any optimization that helps someone get an answer from a search engine that they want. That could be a product, a piece of information, some entertainment or a personal action like finding a diary entry.
Despite the modern technologies powering search and moving things forward, SEO as a practice still comes down to creating an answer with sufficient expertise, authority, and trust (EAT) so the engine deems your content the best result for the query. This means that the exact same query should serve a completely different SERP according to the person searching and the circumstance to which they are conducting the search. As practitioners, all we can do is zoom out and take a broad view on our content and websites in order to fulfil Google’s needs at a strategic level and then get into the weeds with our content production and link development and experiment with tactical outputs and techniques to fulfil the broader strategy of being presented as an expert, with authority and trust.Ross Tavendale, Managing Director Type A Media
Type A Media 的 Ross Tavendale 认为，SEO 是帮助某人从搜寻引擎当中寻找答案的过程中，任何的优化行为。这可以是产品、一个资讯、一些娱乐、或是个人行为，例如想要找写日记的平台。
儘管现在的技术为搜寻和推广事物提供的许多动力，但 SEO 做为一种实践的技术，仍然归咎于拥有足够的专业知识、权威和信任（EAT）的答案，因此当你具备这些因素时，搜寻引擎就会认为你的内容是最佳的结果。因此，作为 SEO 专家，我们能做的就是聚焦在某领域当中的专业性，并依此广泛的产出相关的高度相关性内容，才能满足使用者和 Google 的需求。接着再透过我们的内容和外部连结以及其他相关的优化技巧，实现更深层的网路行销策略，简单来说，拥有权威和信任与成为专家就是获得高排名的途径之一。
2. SEO 是找到使用者想要与需要的内容
每隔一段时间，就会有人出现并开始说「搜寻引擎已死」。但实际上，因为搜寻引擎演算法变动如此快速，因此某些传统的 SEO 技术很可能会马上失效，转而要不断的学习与研究新的优化技巧。因此这些人说说的不过是因为他们没办法跟上搜寻引擎变化的脚步，因此被淘汰。
实际上，并不是搜寻引擎优化已死，而是不好的优化方式会不断失效。
那如今，这个领域正朝着哪方面发展呢？
我们观察到一个趋势：那就是「使用者意图」与内容具有相当高程度的相关性，你要不断考虑到使用者的需求与感受，给他们想要的东西。
SEO to me, if given an explanation that I’m interested in, is part reverse‐engineering algorithms and part reverse‐engineering human nature. It’s about using logic and “gut” to do what you think should matter and then relying on data to correct yourself due‐course. It’s certainly not the best definition I would use to describe SEO to someone else, but it’s what keeps me excited about the industry.Glen Allsop, CEO Detailed
Detailed 的 Glen Allsop 认为，SEO 对他来说，如果给一个他感兴趣的解释的话，就是一部分对演算法的逆向工程与一部分对人性的逆向工程。这就是关于使用逻辑和专业人士的直觉来做出你认为重要的事情，接着再依据数据分析结果来不断改善这一个过程。虽然这不是他用来向其他人解释 SEO 的最佳定义，但 Glen Allsop 对这个产业赶到非常兴奋。
SEO is the art and science of connecting people to website content, through the medium of a search engine. Good SEO comes from a deep understanding of what potential audience members want to find on the internet, and how to deliver content that fits this need, aligned with a technical setup that enables search engines to recognize that your content is a good fit for their users. Websites that have the most SEO success are strong in all three areas: the audience, the content and the technology.Patrick Hathaway, Director URL Profiler
URL Profiler 的 Patrick Hathaway 认为，SEO 是透过搜寻引擎将人们与网站内容联繫起来的一门艺术和科学。好的搜寻引擎优化是追求如何对来自网路上的潜在受众目标给予并提供他们符合他们需求的内容，同时和某些技术相结合，使搜寻引擎能够了解你的内容是真的非常适合使用者。一个非常成功的 SEO 能够让网站再受众目标、内容提供与网页技术上都非常强大。
I’d say SEO is anything and everything that goes into making your site better for search engines and users. I know the “users” bit is not typically considered by everyone but from a link building perspective, my goal is to have users actually click on the links I build. We want to rank well, get great qualified traffic, and have our sites be useful to as many people as possible.Julie Joyce, Owner Link Fish Media
Link Fish Media 的 Julie Joyce 认为，搜寻引擎优化就是一切，所有的一切都可以使你的网站对于搜寻引擎与使用者来说变得更好。「使用者」通常不是每个人的首要考量目标，大多人都会先从反向连结建设的角度优先考量。他的目标是让使用者实际点击他所创建的连结。我们都希望排名能够很好，藉此获得很高质量的流量，并尽可能的让网站能够对更多人来说有价值。
There are two answers to the question “What is SEO?”. The first one is simple: SEO stands for search engine optimization, the art, and science of optimizing websites for organic traffic from search engines.
The second answer is not so simple because the term SEO is outdated. SEOs now have to optimize for users AND search engines and have to cover a broad spectrum of disciplines, from technical optimization to content, content marketing, conversion optimization, user experience, and taxonomy. On top of that, Organic Traffic isn’t (and shouldn’t be) exclusive to get from Google, but also Youtube, Amazon, and other platforms.
Hence, SEO should be the systematic optimization of websites and content for users and bots in order to get organic traffic from search engines and social platforms.Kevin Indig, SEO Lead & Startup Mentor kevin-indig.com
kevin-indig.com 的 Kevin Indig 认为，「什么是 SEO？」这个问题有两个答案。第一个很简单，SEO 就是搜寻引擎优化，从搜寻引擎获得自然流量优化网站的艺术与科学。
第二个答案就不简单了，因为 SEO 这个词有点过时了。现在的 SEO 必须针对使用者和搜寻引擎进行优化，这个过程需要涵盖的技术非常广泛，从网站架构到内容，从内容行销到转换，从使用者体验到客户分层。最重要的是，自然流量不是只有单单从 Google 搜寻引擎当中获得，你同样可以从 Youtube、Amazon、Facebook、Instagram…等等平台中获得。
也因此，SEO 应该是系统性的优化网站、内容和使用者，以利你可以从搜寻引擎与其他社群平台当中获得自然流量。
#SEOisAEO — SEO is fast becoming AEO, Answer Engine Optimisation, the art and science of communicating to answer engines the most appropriate and credible answer to user queries for which you are relevant.Jason Barnard, Search Marketing Consultant Kalicube.pro
Kalicube.pro 的 Jason Barnard 表示，SEO 正在迅速的成为 AEO（Answer Engine Optimization），如何和搜寻引擎沟通的艺术和科学，给予搜寻引擎对于其他使用者搜寻关键字时，回应最合适且可靠的答案。
SEO is the process of surfacing content that fulfills the needs of a searcher. This can span across many search ecosystems, and it often does.Matthew Barby, Director of Acquisition Hubspot
Hubspot 的 Matthew Barby 认为，SEO 是显示满足搜寻者需要的内容的过程。
At its core, SEO is simple. It’s understanding what your users are trying to achieve and then helping them achieve that in a way that both humans and search engines can understand.Ryan Jones, SEO Director ryanmjones.com
Ryanmjones 的 Ryan Jones 认为，SEO 的核心很简单，它就是了解你的使用者想要寻找什么，并且帮助他们找到。同时让搜寻引擎与使用者都能了解的方式去实现这一个目标。
SEO is the process of aligning a site’s content focus and the underlying technical reinforcement of user experience signals with searcher intent needs. This is based on maximizing the highest quality experience where nuanced relevance to those intent needs is sought out. Given that search engines are a form of user, and technical conflicts or barriers to understanding exist, it’s up to the role of SEO to address that reality. The more conflicts or barriers that exist within a site’s presence at the topical and technical level, the less likely the crawl, indexing, and ranking sequence will be able to properly interpret what site owners hope to achieve.Alan Bleiweiss, SEO Consultant alanbleiweiss.com
Alanbleiweiss 的 Alan Bleiweiss 认为，SEO 是聚焦网站内容的焦点和使用者体验的优化，并与使用者意图需求相互结合的过程。有鑒于搜寻引擎也是一种使用者，SEO 的作用就是在解决搜寻引擎的问题。当你的网站在技术上有许多问题时，搜寻引擎爬虫的索引就越不可能正确，也就更不可能实现理想排名的目标。
SEO is the result of having a great business that invests in educating and/or entertaining their audience through valuable content. It’s creating and being the best answer to the myriad of questions that exist in your industry and Google recognizing that through the smooth technical structure of the site, the valuable and in‐depth content and the links that exist from other quality websites around the web back to the great content you are creating.Aaron Agius, Managing Director & Co‐founder Louder.Online
Louder.Online 的 Aaron Agius 认为，SEO 是通过有价值的内容投资于教育或娱乐其目标使用者的伟大结果。它是创造并成为在你所处的行业中，在众多问题当中给予最佳答案，并让 Google 透过网站能够了解到，这些有价值且深度的内容，被其他同样高权威网站连接你的网站。
Traditionally, SEO refers to the practice of getting more traffic from search engines. What people tend to mean by that is the idea of getting traffic by typing in queries at a search box in a web browser. This is where traditional search algorithms apply, such as keywords, content quality, and links.
However, today, it makes sense to take a broader view of the definition of SEO. For example, obtaining traffic from the Google Assistant is also rightly considered SEO as well. Perhaps the better way to think about SEO is that it’s the practice of obtaining visibility and/or traffic in response to user requests for information regardless of when and where such requests take place.Eric Enge, General Manager Perficient
Perficient 的 Eric Enge 认为，传统的 SEO 指的是能够从搜寻引擎获得更多流量的作法，人们倾向于通过搜寻引擎来寻找他们想要找的东西。这是传统搜寻引擎演算法适用的地方，也就是关键字、内容质量和连结。
然而，今天的 SEO 应该从更广泛的角度来看 SEO 的定义。例如，从 Google Assistant 获得流量也被视为是 SEO。
SEO attempts to perfectly match a users’ search intent to its content across all devices and platforms.AJ Ghergich, Founder Ghergich & Co.
Ghergich & Co. 的 Aj Ghergich 认为，SEO 试图将使用者搜寻意图与网站内容进行完美的匹配。
For me, SEO has changed both direction and depth. It is no longer just about doing a bit of on‐page work and adding a few backlinks (although these are still needed and very important).
SEO now means making sure that someone has a pleasing user experience on your website. When someone visits your website and completes an action (contact, purchase, etc.), then your site is meeting requirements that Google is looking for. It is meeting the intent of the searches being performed and will be rewarded accordingly.
Google even go as far as to note this down in explaining how their algorithms work.
This speaks volumes about the direction that Google is taking and how smart their algorithms are.
So the next time you think about adding a bit of text to a page in the hope it helps push you up the SERPs, try and think about the user experience once someone gets to the page.Andy Drinkwater, SEO Consultant IQSEO
IQSEO 的 Andy Drinkwater 认为，对他来说，SEO 改变了方向，它不再仅仅是单纯做站内优化和建立一些反向连结而已（儘管这两个优化仍是必须且非常重要的）。
SEO 现在意味着确保使用者在你的网站拥有令人愉悦的使用者体验，当有人造访你的网站并完成联络、购买等等动作时，你的网站就会满足 Google 的标準，因为你的网站符合使用者搜寻的意图，因此你会得到相对应得奖励（高排名）。
Google 在解释他们的演算法是如何运作时也不断的提到这点。
这说明了 Google 正在採取的方向，以及他们的演算法有多聪明。
当你下次考虑在网站当中加入一些内容以利你的网站排名在 SERP 当中获得更好的排名时，先考虑一下使用者浏览网站时的使用者体验。
SEO is equal parts art and science. It can help you identify the questions your customers (or potential customers) have; how you can (or if you should!) answer them; and how you can ensure that — when those customers ask a search engine — they find your answer in the search results, driving more of the right kind of traffic to your website.Andrew Cock‐Starkey, SEO Consultant Optimisey
Optimisey 的 Andrew Cock 认为，SEO 能够平等的分成艺术和科学两个部分。首先，它可以帮助辨别潜在客户的问题，你究竟应该如何回答或回应他们的问题，并且要如何确保当这些客户使用搜寻引擎进行搜寻时，他们能在搜寻结果当中找到你的答案，从而为你的网站当中带来更多正确且有效的流量。
What is SEO? For me, SEO is making sure I achieve the organic traffic goals of a specific domain. For every search (either textual, visual, voice‐based) the challenge is to create a fitting experience for search engines and their users. This is completely different in every possible situation and that makes SEO a challenging job. Some domains need content, others need links whereas some domains are technically way behind on their direct competitors. Never a dull moment.Jan‐Willem Bobbink, Freelance SEO Consultant 11-internet.nl
11-internet.nl 的 Jan 认为，什么是 SEO？对他来说，SEO 能够确保他实现特定网域的自然搜寻流量。对于每次的搜寻，挑战在于如何为搜寻引擎与使用者创造一个良好的体验。在每个搜寻情况中，这些操作都不同，这使得 SEO 是一项极具挑战的工作。有些网站需要内容、有些网站需要反向连结，而有些网站可能存在网页技术的问题。有非常多样的问题需要去解决，完全没有无聊的时刻。
What isn’t SEO?
In my opinion, SEO is simply a phrase which relates to someone with a specific understanding, appreciation for getting ‘the most’ out of any activity which is undertaken which could be a website/URI/App in relation to organic search.
Ultimately SEO is
Knowledge + Experience + Application of knowledge + Juggling + Dealing with Bullshit = SEOMartin Woods, Co‐Founder & SEO Consultant SALT.agency
SALTagency 的 Martin Woods. 认为，「什么不是 SEO？」，对他来说，搜寻引擎优化只是一个和使用者与关键字之间的关係，如何让使用者在搜寻结果中得到「最多」的内容，因此你能提供的必须要是「最好」的东西。
最终 SEO 就是知识＋经验＋知识＋杂耍＋处理废话＝SEO。
3. 将 SEO 视为一种策略
最终，SEO 在实战中意味着我们使用 SEO 是为了网路行销当中的一种策略，我们确实是需要 SEO，但我们更应该拥有一个最终目标「获得流量与产生利润」。
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing and promoting your website to increase its visibility in Google or other search engines. The end goal is to get more organic traffic, leads, and customers from search engines. In a small number of cases, SEO is also used for reputation management (suppressing “negative” results and replacing them with “positive” results).
Although SEO requires the most upfront investment (time and money), it’s the most scalable customer acquisition channel over the long‐term. I would also argue that it’s the most affordable (as far as CAC) in the long‐term.Nathan Gotch, Founder Gotch SEO
Gotch SEO 的 Nathan Gotch 认为，Search Engine Optimization（SEO）是优化与推广，让网站增加在 Google 或其他搜寻引擎结果当中的能见度的一个过程。而这最终目标都是为了要获得更多的自然流量，从搜寻引擎当中引导更多的使用者进入。在少数案例中，SEO 也适用于名誉管理，也就是产生正面的消息来抑制负面消息。
虽然 SEO 需要前期的投资（时间和金钱），但是对于想要长期获得稳定且优质的客户来源来说，无疑是非常好的方式。同时从长期来看，SEO 的成本是非常划算的。
Whether you call it SEO or something else, the main purpose of our job is to create and modify websites so that search engines and users find them useful. Our goal is to recommend changes to help the business get more customers and make more money. Those changes may be as follows:
technical changes to help search engines better crawl or understand the site.
content changes to make it so that your site is the most helpful of its kind.
changes in relation to Google’s Quality Raters’ Guidelines such as improving how you display E‐A‐T, making sure ads aren’t annoying to users, and removing any issues with the website that could cause users to distrust it.
SEO is constantly changing. But, in my opinion, as long as websites exist, there will be a huge need for SEO!Marie Haynes, Owner Marie Haynes Consulting
Marie Haynes Consulting 的 Marie Haynes 认为，无论你称 SEO 是什么东西，其主要的目的就是创造和调整网站，进而让搜寻引擎和使用者有效的找到。我们的目标是建议和改善并帮助企业获得更多的客户与收益。这些改变可能根据以下几点：
儘管 SEO 不断的改变，但只要网站还在，那么 SEO 就绝对有其必要与需求存在。
SEO is a form of marketing that leverages Google’s organic search. When you write content that is optimized for a certain keyword, then Google will rank you on the 1st page when someone searches for that keyword. While there is a lot more that goes into it, you can boil SEO down to high‐quality content with good on‐page optimization combined with good quality backlinks. The beauty of SEO is that once you’re ranked on Google, you will often stay there for a long time and be able to reap the benefits of free traffic hitting your site daily.
At this point you are kind of in a “set and forget it” mode, versus paid traffic campaigns require you to monitor that campaign’s health every day. Organic traffic tends to convert into customers easier than other forms of traffic too. That being said, most SEOs get obsessed with the ranking portion of driving traffic to their site and often forget to do the other side of marketing.
Don’t forget that you should still be investing in powerful copywriting principles to get your traffic over the finish line from just a website visitor to an actual lead or customer.Gregory Elfrink, Content Manager Empire Flippers
Empire Flippers 的 Gregory Elfrink 认为，SEO 是一种利用 Google 自然搜寻的行销方式，让某人搜寻某关键字时，Google 会将你的网站排在第页。虽然还有很多因素影响，但你仍然可以透过良好的页面优化和高质量的反向连结，把网站变成高质量的内容。搜寻引擎的美妙之处在于，一但你将网站排名达到 Google 首页，通常你就会在那里待上一段很长的时间（持续优化），然后你就能免费获得大量的流量。
从自然搜寻结果进入的流量往往比其他形式产生的流量来的更容易变成实际的客户而产生效益。不过大部分的 SEO 都仅专注于搜寻引擎为他们带来流量的这个层面，而往往忽略了行销了另外一面。
别忘记了，除了获得排名之外，你仍然要投资文案的撰写，如此才能将使用者从单纯的访客变成实际的客户，这才是 SEO 的最终目的。
SEO is the process of finding opportunities to reach your target audience through search and then executing a strategy to increase the frequency of your desired conversion (pageviews, leads, revenue, users, etc).Anthony D Nelson, SEO Manager Khan Academy
Khan Academy 的 Anthony 认为，SEO 是透过搜寻找到机会接触到你的受众目标，接着执行所制定的策略，以不断增加网站浏览量、潜在客户、收录、实际客户…等等的过程。
SEO is search engine optimization; the practice of optimizing your digital presence for findability via search engines. How well do you rank when people search for you or what you offer? And how do you rank better?
That can include surprising networks‐ not just Google but also YouTube, the second biggest search engine. And it can include surprising activities‐ not just blogging but also networking and podcasting and even attending events, if it helps you get more website links to your content, which Google sees as votes from others of your credibility and importance. SEO is viewed as the organic (non‐advertising) side of search.
There are two major types of digital marketing: search and there is social. Within search, there are two major types of marketing: SEO and search advertising such as Google Ads (which some people call “search marketing” but I think that is a confusing term for people). SEO work includes a lot of geeky technical stuff like redirects and htaccess files that requires knowledge of HTML and web server technology.
To achieve search findability and SEO success, you’ll need expertise and action from geeks, marketers, networkers, salespeople and more. SEO takes time, but it’s the long‐term investment. Ads are quicker, like getting a job to get paid now, but SEO pays off big in the long run, like a retirement plan. All serious companies should do SEO, search ads and social media.Brian Carter, CEO The Carter Group
The Carter Group 的 Brian 认为，SEO 是搜寻引擎优化，当人们搜寻你或你提供什么的时候，你的排名如何？如何让你的排名变得更好。
这不仅仅只在 Google 而已，还有全世界第二大搜寻引擎 Youtube。它甚至可以是部落格、广播甚至是线上活动。总而言之，只要任何可以帮助你的网站，或是产生连结到你的网站的活动，都可以被视为是自然的 SEO。
数位行销有两个主要的类型：搜寻和社群。在搜寻当中，又分成两个主要的行销费行：搜寻引擎优化和付费广告。举例来说就是 Google Ads，我们又称之为 SEM（Search Engine Marketing）。搜寻引擎优化的工作包括许多艰涩的技术内容，包括如何使用重定向和 .htaccess 的文件，而且还需要对 HTML 与 Searver Web 相关的专业。
为了实现在搜寻引擎优化的成功，你需要来自技术人员、行销人员、网路写手、销售人员…等等的专业和活动。SEO 需要时间，但是这是个长期投资。投放广告虽快，能够马上获得效益，但从长久来看，SEO 所花费的成本与其所带来的效益是更巨大的。所有认真的公司都应该做 SEO、广告与社群媒体。
When I describe SEO to people who aren’t familiar with what I do, I usually say something like, “I help businesses make changes to their websites and marketing to help ensure that when people use a search engine like Google to search for topics having to do with their products and services, their website is what comes up.”
To expand on that a bit, I think SEO is about marketing a business online, using organic search as a channel. Doing so means understanding how people use search engines to make purchasing decisions for your clients’ products and services. It also means understanding how search engines like Google figure out whether or not a given result is a good result for a query. From a technical standpoint, this means making a website as easy as possible for search engines to find, crawl, and understand. From a marketing standpoint, this means applying that understanding of the customer journey to help ensure that the site is answering people’s needs when they arrive there from search. Done right, SEO not only makes organic search a powerful marketing channel in its own right, it also makes organic search a tool for growing the client’s brand.Ruth Burr Reedy, Director of Strategy Upbuild
Upbuild 的 Ruth Burr Ready 认为，当他和那些不熟悉 SEO 的人解释时，通常他会说「我帮助企业改善他们的网站和行销策略，以帮助其他人使用 Google 或其他搜寻引擎搜寻和企业相关的产品或服务时，他们的网站能够马上出现」。
他认为 SEO 是有关线上行销的业务，使用自然搜寻结果作为管道。这意味着了解如何使用搜寻引擎帮使用者对企业的产品和服务做出购买的决定。因此你要好好了解 Google 的搜寻引擎，想办法让结果对你的网站产生有利的结果。
从技术的角度来看，要让网站尽可能的简单，以便搜寻引擎更好的索引与了解你的网站。
从行销的角度来看，要让内容尽可能的解决使用者的问题，满足使用者的需求。
当你做的对，SEO 不仅仅是成为产生流量的强大管道，它还能透过自然搜寻，变成发展品牌的一项工具。
Once it was a tactical, technical channel designed to manipulate visibility in search results. As SEO popularized, we started to see just how important its role was in digital marketing overall.
SEO can be a powerful digital marketing channel, providing an opportunity to improve a brand’s recognition and qualified traffic. Even though it’s not a small investment (in most cases), its propensity to return huge results is obvious – as long as you stay committed.Bill Sebald, Managing Partner Greenlane Search Marketing
Greenlane Search Marketing 的 Bill Sebald 认为，曾经旨在操纵搜寻结果，但随着搜寻引擎优化的普及，慢慢大家意识到 SEO 在数位行销当中的重要性。
SEO 可以提高品牌的认知度与获得好流量的机会。儘管非常有效的 SEO 并不便宜，你需要先进行相对应的投资，但只要你坚持不懈，其回报是显而易见且非常巨大的。
SEO is digital marketing. Over the years, SEO has evolved so much that it has already become an all‐encompassing marketing discipline. SEO has become more than just search engine optimization.
A decade ago, a few tweaks on the website (i.e., metadata & content) and building links to it is enough to compete for better organic search visibility. But these days, to truly succeed in SEO, your business (not just your website) should be:
1.Technically superior (technical SEO and site performance)
2.Able to provide the best experience possible to its intended web users (content quality, relevance, UX, conversions, and other user‐engagement metrics).
3.Well‐branded — that people would talk about positively, socially share and link to (in which sentiment analysis, entity recognition, E‐A‐T, link building, digital PR, and a lot more are all in play).
4.Data‐driven — to give a better direction to the site’s overall traffic/revenue generation campaign (analytics, keyword research, content gap analysis, forecasting).Jason Acidre, CEO kaiserthesage.com
Kaisertheage 的 Jason Acidre 认为，SEO 是数位行销，多年以来早就已经蓬勃发展，以至于现在已经成为包罗万象的行销学，因此 SEO 已经远远超过其搜寻引擎优化的含义了。
在十年前，网站只要进元数据与内容的调整，同时建立反向连结就能够获得排名。但现在，要真正的成功实现 SEO，就必须要：
SEO is the process to grow a site’s organic search visibility towards its target audience with the goal to increase its traffic, conversions and profits.Aleyda Solis, International SEO Consultant & Founder Orainti
Orainti 的 Aleyda Solis 认为，SEO 是对受众目标提升自然搜寻结果排名的过程，目标是增加更多的流量、转化率与利润。
The definition for what we talk about when we talk about SEO is changing dynamically. Six or seven years ago, SEO was mostly focused on getting links from directories, press releases and so on. Back then only a few SEOs (if any) would focus on the technical aspects of how you should optimize your website past H tags and meta titles/descriptions.
This has changed dramatically. I will go as far as to say that most people today look at SEO as a more technical field than a way to get links. SEO is also about links, but it is much more than that — it’s about being up to date with the latest trends in web technology and challenging the industry by e.g. testing how Search Engines cope with current JavaScript Frameworks.
SEO was always about being creative and looking for new solutions. This hasn’t changed. SEO was and still is about being flexible and agile to stay ahead of the curve.Bartosz Góralewicz, Co‐founder & Head of SEO Elephate
Elephate 的 Bartosz Góralewicz 认为，当我们在谈论 SEO 时，我们在谈论的内容与定义正在不断的变化。约莫在六七年前，SEO 主要集中在从目录、新闻稿…等地方获得反向连结。当时只有少数 SEO 会关注如何优化网站的 H 标籤和元标籤/叙述的技术。
如今，早已发生巨大的变化。今天对于大多数人来说，SEO 已经不是获取反向连结的方式，而是另一种技术的领域。虽然搜寻引擎优化仍然与外部连结有关，但它仅仅是其中一个因素而已。
SEO 总是不断的寻找新的解决方案，搜寻引擎优化从过去到现在仍然是非常灵活，且不断改变的一项技术。
What is SEO? It’s a process that works with a variety of digital marketing components with the end result to improve your visibility in the eyes of those looking for answers and information. In short: SEO is no longer chasing the ‘rankings’. SEO is chasing the answer.Bonnie Burns, SEO Strategist bonnieburns-seo-strategist.com
bonnieburns-seo-strategist.com 的 Bonnie Burns 认为，什么是 SEO？这是一个和各种数位行销合作的流程，在最终的结果中，可以提高你在寻找答案和资讯的人眼中的知名度。简而言之，SEO 不再追逐「排名」而是寻求「答案」。
Search Engine Optimization has come to mean far more than it used to. Originally, SEO simply meant the implementation of accepted best practices for visibility and findability, as recommended by Google and other search industry leaders. Today, however, to me, the phrase “search engine optimization” includes a wide variety of activities, both on‐site and off‐site, that help ensure that a website is not only found, but that it stays there, and that it performs well too, converting users into customers and clients.Scott Hendison, CEO Search Commander, Inc
Search Commander, Inc 的 Scott Hendison 认为，搜寻引擎优化的意义超越以往。最初， Google 就像其他搜寻引擎一样。然而，时至今日，「SEO」这一个单字包括任何数位行销的活动，这些行为有助于帮助网站在各方面都表现得更好，并将进入的流量转化成客户。
SEO is the art and science of coupling the completion of a businesses objective (usually generating revenue) to an effective online strategy that harnesses traffic gained from ranking in search engines.Jeremy Rivera, Freelance SEO & Digital Marketing Consultant jeremyriveraseo.com
Jeremyriveraseo.com 的 Jeremy Rivera 认为，SEO 是将企业最终目标（产生收益）与有效的数位行销策略相结合的艺术与科学，该策略能够提升搜寻引擎的排名并从中获得流量。
Two answers:
SEO is the practice of professing to know something about which you know nothing while convincing others who know they know nothing, that you know something, with the goal of making money.
SEO is a discipline of study into how information retrieval works for the world’s largest search engines. To do so involves understanding how people search, why they search, what experience they receive online as a result of a search, and how to optimize their experience with the goal of aligning site content with user needs. Major search engine professionals’ goal is to give their users a great experience on their products. So aligning content, architecture, data, and usability in an additive way to search queries also adds revenue value for websites and brands online.JR Oakes, Director, Technical SEO Adapt Partners
Adapt Partners 的 JR Oakes 认为，SEO 是研究资讯搜寻如何为世界上最大的搜寻引擎工作的一门科学。要做到这一点，你必须了解人们是如何进行搜寻的，同时还要了解他们搜寻的原因与意图，试图根据使用者的需求调整网站内容，并优化他们的体验。专业的搜寻引擎优化人员的主要目标是提供使用者良好的使用者体验，因此，透过研究与分析搜寻的方式，进而调整网站内容与架构，甚至是分析后续数据，最终帮助企业提升品牌价值与收入。
SEO is a lifestyle! Meeting people across the world during my keynote speeches, exchanging knowledge and bringing a lot of quality traffic is what I love the most. SEO is very different from any other industry. Challenging, constantly forcing people to learn more and finally with a lot of social human‐to‐human dimension. The greatest thing that could happen to me.Lukasz Zelezny, SEO Speaker & Consultant zelezny.uk
Zelezny.uk 的 Lukasz Zelezny 认为，SEO 是一种生活方式，和全世界的人见面与发表相关的演讲，交流相关知识与带来大量的优质流量的过程，这是他所喜欢的。SEO 与其他行业都有很大的不同，极具挑战性，会不断迫使人们学习更多。
Google it.Patrick Stox, Technical SEO patrickstox.com
Patrickstox.com 的 Patrick Stox 表示，就 Google 它吧！
SEO is a process which improved the website to provide more useful information to people.
We know about the search engine committed to providing high user experience, useful information for people. Therefore, We need to focus on “User”, not “Google”, if we did well then we will get the reward. Sliven, Founder of Whoops SEO seo.whoops.com.tw
Whoops SEO 的 Sliven 认为，SEO 是改善网站并提供有用的资讯给人们的一个过程。
我们都知道搜寻引擎致力于提供有用的资讯与良好的体验给人们，因此我们应该专注于“使用者”而非“ Google ”。如果我们做得好，那么就会得到相对应的回报。
你认为 SEO 是什么呢？
这综合了大量 SEO 专业人士的想法，非常感谢这些 SEO 领域当中佼佼者的经验谈。
希望这篇集结众多专家的意见，能够为你解惑。
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