Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the act of altering or optimizing your website and its content so that it is found relevant and useful by search engines for certain topics. You can select the most appropriate topics by using certain keywords on your website.
When surfers search search engines, they are presented with a list of results for that search term. These results are called search engine results pages (SERPs), and in general, websites that appear at the top of SERPs will get a lot of traffic to their websites from search engines.
To determine your position in the SERPs, search engines use their own algorithms. While no one is absolutely sure what these algorithms are, it is widely accepted that your website should be easy to navigate, popular, and relevant.
Simple navigation means your site must have text links to each of your pages. If you are using a flash menu system, you should include a sitemap so that search engines and visitors can find their way around your website quickly and easily.
For your website to appear popular, you need to get links to your site. While search engines prefer these links to be generated because visitors to your site actually find your content useful, it is common to engage in a reciprocal link campaign or generate inbound links. Reciprocal links mean that a website links to you in exchange for a link to your site.
Relevance is judged by its content. By including keywords that you enter in your site’s meta tags throughout the body of your content and at certain points within your site, you signal to search engines that your website contains relevant information.
By combining these factors, you can effectively convince search engines that you deserve to be at the top of their SERPs. However, this can take time and a lot of effort if you don’t fully understand what you are doing.