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The definition of Search Engine Optimization differs depending on who you ask. My definition of Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving a website's search engine compatibility by virtue of implementing various proven website design features and functions such as choosing good content and content relative keyword selection and placement, using meta tags concisely and effectively, proper html formatting and clean code, building up as many backlinks as you can from other websites, plus a host of other methods that will ensure that your website has a high search engine ranking that leads visitors to your website after they conduct a keyword search.

Search Engine Optimization is a process of selecting the most appropriate targeted keyword or keyword phrases related to your site and making sure that these rank your site high in the search engines so that when someone searches for specific keyword or keyword phrase it returns your site on the top of the (SERP) search engine results page. Search Engine Optimization basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate link building process. The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves.

Search engines are secretive and keep their methods and ranking algorithms to themselves, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually. Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine. New sites need not be "submitted" to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.

Many people classify Search Engines and Directories as being the same. But there are distinct differences between the two. A Search Engine utilizes computer algorithms in order to determine the acceptability of a website for inclusion into it's index. A 'spider' will 'crawl' a website and bring the necessary data back to the search engine for indexing. A Directory, on the other hand, does not make use of technology to determine the acceptability of a website. On a Directory, a human being actually reviews a website to determine whether or not a site meets their criteria for indexing. The "index" is a hugh database that stores all of the information about websites.

Some of the things you may wish to avoid when working on your SEO include avoiding artificially increasing a page's keyword density. For example, you do not want to stuff a webpage with unnecessary words in order to heighten its keyword density. Nor do you want to hide text or links. For example, you want to avoid writing out a bunch of keywords on a website in the same color as your background in order to trick the search engine spiders into thinking you have a greater keyword density then you do. Both of these tactics are considered unethical and, as such, you could be heavily penalized if you are found out, to the point of getting your website permanently banned.

The unethical techniques webmasters sometimes use are commonly referred to as Black Hat SEO methods such as keyword stuffing as mentioned above or spamdexing. The search engines look upon Black Hatters as those that are always attempting to manipulate search engine rankings unfairly and are willing to take calculated risks to do so. Some SEO companies employ aggressive techniques that potentially get their clients banned from the search engines. Black Hat methods often will cost all reputable webmasters once the search engines decipher what the Black Hatters are doing that is not so appropriate and put a stop to it. We are all penalized by these methods and it has been known to crush high income adsense campaigns of hundreds or even thousands of people in the past, to the tune of mid five figures monthly, higher and lower.