If you have had anything to do with the internet you have probably heard of SEO. But just what is it? Search Engine Optimization refers to creating websites and pages that people can find easily when they do searches. It also refers to backlinks in articles that are posted on article directories. These backlinks point back to your site so that after a visitor reads your article, he or she can click on the link and find your site. It can also refer to a person. A Search Engine Optimizer is a person who practices SEO.
White Hat
White Hat tactics create lasting results that are rewarded by search engines. White Hat SEO is organic, ethical and above board. These tactics include quality content with the proper percentage of keywords and search terms, relevant backlinks, submission to article directories and bookmarking these articles on major social networks.
Spiders on the Web
Search engines use programs called spiders to "crawl" websites. These spiders read a site like a human, top to bottom, first page to last, and use the links and keywords they find to index the site in their databases. If you have effective SEO your site will be recognized as being worthy of their notice. This will lead to a better page rank on results pages. You can test your website by entering your business name into a search engine. You will get a number of hits for the name and when you find your page, you will know how well you rank.
Conclusion
The best way to ensure that your site has effective SEO is to find a qualified and experienced company to set up and maintain your site. This will free you from constantly having to update your site or testing your links to be sure they still work correctly. This article covers just the basic concepts of SEO since it is an ever evolving science. The internet moves at the speed of light and the marketing concepts involved are not far behind.