SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a field of endeavor related to Internet marketing, website management, web design and writing for the Internet. The fundamental purpose of SEO is to improve the ability of searchers using web browsers to find your material based on the keywords entered into the search field. You want searchers who use those keywords to stumble across your site listed nice and high in the results eventuating from the search.
High rankings: sounds easy, right? It’s not so easy. Search Engine Optimization is a niche field jostling with every extreme from those who think they know how it all works, to complete shonks who have no idea but profess to know it all, through to the genuine web gurus who know all the legitimate tricks to put a website on the map (or at least on Google).
A multifaceted field
To become a true SEO guru, you need to have knowledge and experience across some pretty diverse fields: marketing; sales; copywriting for the web; technical and design focused Internet skills and a mind for statistical analysis.
Top players in the field typically arrive via the quest to improve one’s own page ranking or that of a client, or out of technical interest in the way that the web functions.
More than just promotional benefits
Getting a good page rank on a major search engine is more than a nice feeling and a pat on the back; high rankings yield financial rewards. Many sites are monetized with pay-per-click or pay-per-view (impressions) advertising. People make entire livings from this kind of revenue, making SEO a key part of their earning strategy. SEO is big business and can be a lucrative field.