What is SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization,
is the way to optimize your business website and create a great
traffic flow of viewers and customers.  However, it is a
complicated process that takes time and experience to properly
accomplish. With all of the newest rules as to how you can use SEO to your advantage, its
helpful to understand where SEO started.

Going back a little

When the Internet first started being developed in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, the programs were simple and the use of the Internet was
strictly within a small network of people generally government sites
and other businesses. However as people began to realize the
possibilities of using the Internet on a larger scale, there was no
going back to the simpler times.

E-mail was created and websites began to be born. Made with the
simplest of programming lines, these websites werent easy to find
unless you already knew that they existed: enter the idea of the Search
Engine. The search engine was generally run by the webmaster
themselves and would go through the programming information on the
websites to see if what the person was searching for matched the text
in the website. If so, that website would be listed first, and
the searcher would generally go to that website.

However, these early systems were based on few restrictions.
These search engines branded SEO
as something that occurred when the search term matched words within
the webpage itself. So, all a web site developer had to do was
add numerous keywords in order to be ranked higher on the page of
search results. Many times, the website wouldnt even be relevant
to the search that an Internet user was performing, but since it
contained the highest number of the search terms, the relevancy was
ranked higher.

But this didnt sit well with those web pages that were relevant to the
searches, though they didnt contain enough of the search terms.
This was the beginning of the Google revolution and organically looking
through the information on websites to see if it truly was relevant to
a web search. Instead of just ranking in terms of keywords, there
were more restrictions. Pages could rank higher if they:

Used keywords in the links that led to a page
Had keywords in the titles tag
Had keywords that were found in the text
Were popular with other users that searched for the
term

Always a bad egg

However, there are still websites that manage to manipulate the system
in order to bring more visitors to their page. And while search
engines are getting better at realizing when they are being deceived
with hidden keywords and other covert methods, its up to the business
itself to be sure that their site is SEO and that it uses legal
methods of doing so. Not only does this instill confidence in the
business, but it also provides the opportunity for the business to be
seen as honest.