Search Engine Optimization – What Is SEO?

The act of optimizing a webpage and/or website to perform well in the search engines defines Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engine placement practices and SEO strategies seek to improve the number and quality of visitors to a website from pages of organic search results. The position where your website ranks on search engines is essential to directing more qualified traffic.

If search engines cannot locate your website, you miss out on opportunities to connect with people who are actively searching for your products and services. Regardless of your website goals, search engines are a key channel through which most traffic originates.

SEO is offered as a single service or as a component of an overall website promotion strategy. Search engine optimization includes changing the markup of the site, web design, improving site architecture, and usability. SEO’s utilize a range of various search engine optimization strategies in order to increase the visibility of websites.

Search Engines and Search Engine Popularity Chart

Because Google remains the unrivalled leader in the search industry, a prominent position on Google’s results page is extremely important for growing your online business. There are thousands of pages that contain the particular keyword or keyword phrases for which your potential customers are searching. Google and other search engines perceive some sites of these sites as more relevant, more popular, or more authoritative and present these sites first.

Most search engines use methodology to rate the results in order to present the “best” results first. How a search engine determines which sites are the best matches, and what order the results should be displayed in, differs broadly from one engine to another. The methodology also changes over time as internet usage changes and new search technology is designed.

Google has a 49.2% share of all America’s searches. Yahoo and MSN have respectively 23.8% and 9.6%.

Adopted from www.searchenginewatch.com