Let me give it a try.
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is like baking a cake. Just as there are certain ingredients you need to make a cake - flour, sugar, eggs, etc. - there are also certain elements you need to include in your website content in order for it to be optimized for search engines. For example, like eggs help to bind everything together, keywords are important for helping search engines understand what your content is about. And just as too much sugar can make a cake too sweet, using too many keywords can result in something called "keyword stuffing" which will actually hurt your ranking. But if you follow the recipe and use the right ingredients, you'll end up with a delicious cake that everyone will enjoy. Similarly, if you use the right techniques, your website will be rewarded with a high ranking in search engine results pages. And that's the goal of SEO - to help your website get found by potential customers who are looking for what you have to offer.
SEO is also like dressing up for an interview. Just like dressing up helps the interviewer. Trust you, dressing up your website and your content with search engine optimization strategies makes you look more trustable and helpful to Google and people looking up questions about your topics.
I hope this helps!