SEO or search engine optimizations are modifications and activities in order to achieve top positions in search results. We search for products or solutions using web search engines. We type a keyword or search phrase into, for example, Google and for every imaginable combination of words we get a lot of results. One of the most important properties of Google web search engine is that it returns relevant pages. This means that the most important and relevant websites or web pages related to our search phrase are displayed on the first page of results. It is publicly known that about 42% of search engine users click on the firs result. The second result gets about 11% of clicks and this number rapidly decreases for other results. This means that in order to use search engines to bring traffic to our website we should be present on top positions.

To get to the top positions for specific keyword we should have relevant web page which addresses this keyword or search phrase. Having relevant web pages means having quality content about target keywords and optimized page elements that clearly describe what the pages are about. Optimizations are divided into two groups, on-page and off-page.

On-page optimizations
Those optimizations are small modifications or additions of particular elements to emphasize important phrases. When we are optimizing a web page for particular keyword we make sure that this keyword is present in the page title, in meta description, in meta keywords, we try to use header tags for titles and subtitles, we use relevant anchor texts for all internal links, etc. Search engine spiders and crawlers download only HTML code and see our website differently as human visitors. Therefore, they need to know what is important and what is not. In other words, we use all possible elements on the page to emphasize the keyword we are trying to optimize for. Those optimizations of page elements are mainly oriented toward search engines but in many cases they are beneficial also to human visitors.

Off-page optimizations
Off-page optimizations are activities to promote and popularize our website. In general, this means creating backlinks to the website. The number and quality of backlinks defines the relevance or importance of particular web page. This information is then used by search engines to determine the most relevant pages for search results. Links can have a "nofollow" attribute which tells Google and some other search engines not to follow this link and not to take it into account when calculating the relevance of the target web page. Therefore, links marked with this attribute are worth significantly less than "normal" links.

Both on-page and off-page optimizations are needed for a successful website. If the competition is weak we may get to the top positions even without any activity but such cases are rare. Basic SEO is always welcome and needed for online success.