SEO (search engine optimization) is a set of steps that make a website easier for Google and other search engines to understand, so they can rank it properly and show it to people searching for what you offer. It's not a trick or a one-off fix — it's more like ongoing care for a site's technical foundations, content and structure.
A website with good SEO usually loads quickly, works well on mobile, has clearly named pages, and content that genuinely matches what people are searching for. A site without SEO basics, on the other hand, might be beautiful and useful, but search engines may not even know it exists.
Summary
SEO doesn't decide how a website looks — it decides whether anyone finds it at all.