Search Engine Optimization Explained

SEO stands for search engine optimization. There are three major search engine's that collectively do about 98% of all searches. These engine's are (I am going to put some statistic's up here but keep in mind these are roughly accurate and always have room for fluctuation).

Google who does about 80% of searches Yahoo does about 15% and MSN does about 5%. When the term SEO is used it usually in context of a service,consultant or business who are all in essence saying they have some expertise in how these search engine's work.

Or as Wikipedia defines it " Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engine's via "natural" (organic or algorithmic") search results. Typically,the higher a site's "page rank"(I.E.the earlier it comes in the search results list),the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search,local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers, " a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SER may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs,menus,content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize. Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEP or spamdexing, use methids such as link farms and keyword stuffing that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these technique's in order to remove them from their indices." (As explained in Wikipedia)