Search Engine Optimization (SEO) encompasses the methods by which a developer improves a website's ranking in search results. This is a very common buzzword in web dev so let's make sure we understand what it actually means and how it helps.
We can understand how SEO plays into client acquisition using a short story:
John's coffee shop is located on a main street and has ornate signage. Bob's coffee shop is on a backstreet with little foot traffic. He has no signage because he thinks a coffee shop should only be concerned about what goes in the cup. “If the coffee is good enough, the customers will come”, Bob says. He wastes no time with signage and thinks his location is “good enough”.
John's coffee shop sees 800 people walk in a day while Bob only sees around 300 people walk in a day. Despite serving what in his opinion is superior coffee, his competitor John has more than double the foot traffic. He can see people pass his establishment with bags from John's coffee place.
Why?
Many people don't even know Bob's coffee shop is there because John's branding puts the spotlight on him. Bob's location puts him at a disadvantage. Bob also doesn't communicate to prospective clients at all - he leaves it up to them to figure out that he has a coffee shop and relies on customer intuition - which is very bad because in this era people are less likely to go to such lengths in the face of an easier option.
The more you can communicate without having to speak, the better. John follows the principle of “Show, don't tell”. Everything you need to know is provided, his shop has a website, and everything about doing business with him is transparent. Bob doesn't even have a website.
All of this influences whether or not people even walk in the door.
The components of a website with good SEO are:
A good developer takes time to optimize the website's code to run cleanly and efficiently so that the search engines don't have to work so hard to find and display information.
This is where tools like AI and page builders show their bloat because they produce code that is totally stuffed with extra junk that slows down the browser, leading to longer load times and a higher bounce rate.
Users will return to sites with good SEO more than ones that don't because they tend to be structured better and appear first on search.
SEO is not “set it and forget it”, but part of a long term strategy employed by developers that are paying attention to the way the internet is evolving and care about the long term well being of the sites under their management.