How to hide or keep away /node I want to avoid the URL pointing to a node on my site contains the "node" part (e.g. http://example.com/node/1). Is it possible?
You need the Path module for URL aliases. (It is a Drupal core module.)  

Once the module is enabled, you can edit a node, and set a path alias for the node. Now, you can access your node through the path alias you just created.
Drupal will use the path alias you set as URL for the node, except for sub-paths (e.g. node/1/edit).