what is search engine optimization?

[Zackary Lusk]

Search engine optimization or SEO is the process of making web pages attractive to the search engines. Your goal with respect to search engine optimization is to have your website ranked on the first page of the search results. It is important to show up on the first page because most people don't click past the first page of the search results. Websites listed on the second and third pages see significantly less traffic than sites that appear on the first page. There have been reports of over one hundred percent increase in traffic and sales for websites that have been optimized. You would think that the prospect of such an increase in traffic and sales would be incentive enough to optimize your website. Surprisingly, that is not always the case. There are several reasons why people don't want to do this work. A lot of people think that all they have to do is submit their site to the search engines and they will be guaranteed success. This tactic will not get traffic pouring in to your site. You have to do some type of optimization on your web pages to be truly successful.