What is SEO - search engine optimization? 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the traffic to a web site from search engines by organic search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO is a part of wider Internet Marketing

Just a few years ago, a 'innovative' SEO company would have been a master of the latest optimisation innovations. It would get its clients' sites into high positions, delivering thousands of visitors every day. The fact that the positions were earned through illegal "dirty" techniques like cloaking and spamdexing, that the clients were often in the adult or gambling sectors and that the traffic was more notable for its quantity than its quality was, naturally, of lesser importance.

Today, a good SEO will still be a search engine expert and will still get its clients to the top of the listings - but there the resemblance ends. Now it is a respected, effective and essential part of Internet marketing strategy. SEO today is more about helping web sites harness the power of the search engines and less about misleading the search engines.

SEO is the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines. Optimizing a web site for search engines can require looking at so many unique elements that many practitioners of SEOs consider themselves to be in the broad Internet Marketing field.