Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of achieving the highest ranking possible on the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN and others. There are multiple components to a quality SEO campaign. These components can range from having the website coded properly, adding relevant content to the website on a regular basis and establishing a smart linking campaign as well as other aspects. Natural or Organic SEO is a process. It takes time and work to achieve results, but results will come if done properly.

Yes there are many tricks out there to achieve higher ranking. They are all bad and will not enhance your position on the search engines, but can lower them and may get your website banned from the search engines. These tactics are known as Black Hat SEO and should be avoided at all costs.

Cloaking - This is the process of having the content, which the search engine recognizes be different than what the actual visitor to the website sees.

Keyword Stuffing - There are multiple forms of keyword stuffing. As the name would suggest, putting repetitive or grossly overusing keywords in the meta tags or in the content is an example. Another process is having text that is the same color as the background. These are words that the user might not necessarily see (except in some instances), but the search engines can. This is done in an effort to manipulate the search engine crawlers.

There are numerous examples of Black Hat SEO practiced not only by webmasters, but SEO companies as well. A quality SEO Company that truly has your best interests at heart will avoid these tactics. They will not only lower your rankings, but can get your website banned from the search engines.

Keywords are the words or phrases that are used when a person is looking for a certain product or service on one of the search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Keyword selection is one of the most important factors in optimizing your website because if the keyword choices are poor, the work you do later will be of little or no use.

Here are some things to consider when choosing Keywords:

1. Make sure your keyword choices are specific enough. It is important to stay away from single keywords. If your keyword choices are too broad, it becomes more difficult to optimize;
2. Choose variations of different keywords or phrases;
3. Don't just take what your competitors are doing and copy them. They might not be doing a good job on their end and copying them just means you are copying their mistakes;
4. Stay away from using words like and, in, on and the in your keyword choices. They are considered irrelevant to the search engines so they offer little or no benefit. You want to use them in the content of the website, however; and
5. Don't try to target every keyword on the planet. Stick to the ones which will drive the most customers to your website.

Metatags are the data you used to describe what your website is about to the search engines. Metatags are broken into three categories.

Title

Keywords

Description

You want to make sure you have keywords in all three descriptions. However, you want to make sure that you aren't just trying to cram as many keywords in to them as you possibly can. Target the keywords that are the most relevant. In the description of the website, it is important to have content that makes sense. Draft the content as if you were describing your business to someone which in reality you are. Many times businesses will just try to stick as many keywords as they can in the description which does not help because you want to be able to describe the business, not use a bunch of keywords.

Don't try to target every keyword on the planet. Stick to the ones which will drive the most customers to your website.

An Alt Tag is text that is used to describe images on a website. Search engine spiders are unable to read images so if you have a link to another page for something like special pricing items in the form of an image, then the search engine crawler will not recognize it and skip over it. You want to make sure that the crawlers are able to view all of the pages of your site. One thing to note with alt tags is that they need to be relevant to the content of the site.

An algorithm is a complex mathematical equation used by Google and other search engines to rank the relevancy of websites. The industry is very secretive about these equations, so very little is known. This is done to keep people from coming up with shortcuts to trick or beat the search engine algorithm. These search engine algorithms are constantly changing, so it is vital to monitor your website and be aware when there is movement in your website whether positive or negative.

A Pay-Per-Click campaign is an area of Google and other search engines in which you can pay to have your ad placed. This is a good program, especially for new websites because it helps you to get exposure to your website faster. PPC ads are the advertisements that show sometimes at the top and on the sides of a search. The premise of a pay per click campaign is that you purchase keywords that you want to target. The cost of the keywords depends on the competition. Some keywords can be as low as a nickel while others can cost up to $10 for some of the more competitive ones. The great thing about a PPC is that you are only charged when someone clicks on your advertisement. However, you do need to be careful. If you don't set a daily budget a pay per click campaign can be incredibly expensive.

Pay Per Click campaigns are a good supplement to a search engine optimization campaign, but they can't replace natural or organic SEO. While there are many good aspects to a PPC, there are some things to be considered. While your ad will show up on Page 1 on a search, it doesn't mean that it will be there every time. Ads on a PPC rotate out to give other businesses exposure so you might not necessarily be there when potential customers run a keyword search. Also, customers are more inclined to click on the natural listings because they have more information and have achieved their ranking on the search engine through hard work.

You might want to take a look at the keywords you are using. Having relevant keywords is a major key not only to having high rankings, but achieving sales. It is somewhat easy to get a high ranking using an irrelevant keyword because nobody else is using it. It is always a good idea to analyze your keywords to make sure they are current and relevant. You want to make sure that you are using keywords that are similar to your competition without copying them word for word.

There can be many causes to this problem. One problem could be the design of the website. Websites are like any other form of technology. It changes at a very rapid pace. If you have an older website, chances are that it probably needs a makeover from a design and content standpoint. Another issue could be that due diligence has not been paid from an SEO standpoint. SEO is about achieving high rankings and staying there. If you haven't been keeping up, you can guarantee that your competition has been. Chances are, you need to take a serious look at implementing a quality SEO campaign.

While it is important to not overlook any of the search engines, right now Google is the king. It is estimated that anywhere from 40 to 70 percent of people go looking for the information through search engines will go to Google. The name Google has actually become a verb as, "just Google it." If you are achieving high rankings on Google, then you will be in good shape from an SEO standpoint for the near future.

When you are creating a website, there are many things that can be done to make it as friendly as possible to potential visitors. On the flip side, there are errors that can be made that can have a negative effect on your website.

Do's

Ensure that the navigation is easy to follow;
Make sure all links go to the correct place. You never want dead links on your site;
Add relevant content to your website for the purpose of information and search engine optimization; and
Have the site built to be able to sustain growth.

Don'ts

Don't use older technology in the development. What was cutting edge back in the day is just old and outdated.
Avoid all Flash websites. They kill you in terms of optimization;
Don't throw your site together in an effort to go live sooner. Spend the extra time to make sure that it is a quality website. If it looks thrown together, it hurts your credibility as a business or company; and
If you are having a website built, don't always go for the cheapest option. As the saying goes, "you get what you pay for." It makes sense to spend the extra money to have a website built that will sustain growth and be as search engine friendly as possible.

The answer to this question is an emphatic NO! Once you have achieved a high search engine ranking , you have done a lot of the heavy lifting so to speak. Why would you want to stop now? Search engine optimization is a process. Once you have achieved a top ranking, the goal is now to continue to stay there. Just because you got there doesn't mean that the fight is over. It is only beginning. Your competitors will be doing everything they can to knock you off the ranking mountain. That is why it is important to continue to practice good SEO policies to stay at the top.

You should always try to add as much new content as much as possible. Google views quality content in high regard.. If you are adding quality content on a regular basis, Google will recognize this and will crawl your site more frequently. If Google crawls your site and never sees constant content, it will begin to crawl it on a less frequent basis. When you are adding constant content, make sure to add your keywords in there. You don't need to cram as many keywords in there as you possible can because the content needs to make sense. Also, by adding quality constant content to your website, you are providing your customers a service because you are becoming a source of information for them and others.

A URL or Uniform Resource Locator is a way of locating resources on a web server. It is also referred to as a web address or a location. It can look like the main address such as www.bluesanddesign.com or it can be for one of the sub pages such as www.bluesanddesign.com/FAQs.

A web crawler or spider as they are also known are programs created by search engines which navigate or “crawl” through websites searching for content. The crawler takes the information that it finds from the website and puts it on the search engine. It is very important that you have your website set up in a search engine friendly manner so these crawlers can navigate through the site as easily as possible. You want to make sure that as much of the website is optimized. Make sure you have alt tags on images and a proper sitemap. If it is text based, it will allow the crawler to find what it is looking for.

A site map is table of contents for a website. It is really no different than the table of contents for a book. This provides an easy way for users search engine crawlers to navigate through a website efficiently. Sitemaps are linked to the individual pages so it provides an easy way for a user to find what they are looking for. If a website is not easy to navigate, the crawler will leave and go to another site. It is also important to update the sitemap as you add new content to the website.

A blog is an online journal. There are blogs on virtually every subject on the planet. It is an online forum for people to write about what interests them. Blogging has become very popular because anyone can do it. They are also an easy way for people to get information out to the public. From a business standpoint, blogs are effective because it is a great tool for disseminating information. They can be very informal and don't have to be specific to any one topic. They are also great because you can create links back to your website which is helpful for your link campaign.

Flash is a programming language that can create movement on a webpage. You can have text appear on the page and then be removed or animate characters to go across the screen. The great thing about flash from an SEO perspective is that it can be optimized in small doses. While flash is a wonderful technology, stay away from large amounts of it.

It is never too late to begin an SEO program. However, the farther behind you are, the more time it will take. There are certain industries where the competition for placement in the organic search engine results is fierce. It will take time, effort and frankly money. However, if you are patient and diligent, you can achieve high rankings even if you start at a disadvantage.

If a company tells you they can guarantee a number one placement on the search engines, you should run away screaming. While it is not unusual for a company to guarantee a page one or high ranking, there are too many variables taken into account for a number 1 ranking, the greatest being the constant changes of the search engine's algorithms.