SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of making your website search engine friendly. When a web crawler, from one of the search sites, visits your website it should not be impeded in its attempt to understand the nature of the site and the main focus of its message. The better a search engine sees the content of your website the better chance you have of ranking well in web searches.

The Search Engine Optimization Process. There are five basic steps in any search engine optimization process. In order to web optimize your website you will need to repeat the process on a regular basis.

Keyword Research. Finding the words and search terms used by web surfers to locate websites like yours is the first order of business. Your attempts to rank well in organic internet searches will fail if you neglect to orient your website to reflect these words and phrases.  Most of these search terms are highly competitive and there are so many sites using them that its difficult to create a niche among them. Your job is to find the keywords that rank well among web surfers that visit websites like yours but are just slightly askew of the keywords used by the heavy competition.

Website Optimization. The structure of a website is a key factor in the SEO process. This entails creating a proper directory structure and employing the correct means of navigation to mine the data. In other words, the framework in which you present your website must complement its theme. Search engines attempt to view a website as an organic whole. Although certain individual pages of a website will sometimes rank better than others its the overall impression of your website that factors into how this happens.

Content Optimization. I am sure that you have heard the phrase, "content is king" and believe me when it comes to internet success no words could be more true. The web has evolved into an information exchange network. If you have interesting information to share your website will not go unnoticed. Transmitting solid information through your website should be your primary goal. This is the reason your visitors come in the first place. The search engine spiders, like human web surfers, look for content that is both logical and organized. This is how they percieve the theme and content of your website.

Search Engine Submission. In order to keep your website up to date and ensure that the search engines are aware of your site it is often necessary to resubmit it. When you make changes to your website it can take the search engines and directories a month or more to reflect these changes. It is your responsability to see that the latest and greatest version of your site is available on the web at all times. This can be accomplished through the use of a submission service or your own hard work.

Tracking and Analysis. Tracking and analyzing the effect that the SEO process is having on your web rankings is an ongoing procedure. You will need to see what your optimization efforts are accomplishing. By tracking the results and you can see what works and what dosen't.
Analysis of the tracking data is paramount. You can look for trends in your search engine rankings as well as the type and quality of the visitors who are enterning your website. Observing a few key data points will pay dividends.

Search Engine optimization Maintenance. Search engine optimization is an ongoing process and is very important as the search engines often change their algorithms, pages tend to loose their rankings from the search engines and other websites try to capture top positions. So to always maintain your website on the top positions of the major search engines regular submission and maintenance is required.