What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or "organic" search results.  Simply put, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience.

Proper SEO involves editing a web pages's content and associated HTML coding to increase that pages' relevance to specific keywords.  This, along with ongoing changes to a website help to achieve top rankings in the major search engines. Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask all look for different ranking criteria. The goal is to make your site friendly to all of these search engines at once.

Natural, or Organic Search Engine Optimization is an on-going process that aligns your website's code and content with strategic keyword phrases, with the goal of assisting a search engine algorithm in understanding a website's keyword focus - what your website is all about. SEO can be simple for some websites, while others may require intense website code, content, navigation and internal linking changes.

Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines