What is SEO?

Quite simply, Google, Bing and the lesser known search engines have developed mathematical algorithms that send out "spiders" and "bots" (short for robots) out to your website and discover if your website is useful, interesting or worthless. These bots and spiders "crawl" your website and compare it to other websites with about 100 or so ranking factors. These search engine ranking factors include things like domain age, keywords, backlinks, fresh content and much more.

Why do we need SEO ?

Creating a professional website can be a daunting task at first. I have to admit, the first one I created was quite sad in comparison with my later creations. But, like many things, it simply takes time and patience.

But, I love the design aspects and the freedom I have when I create something from nothing, nurture it and watch it grow. SEO can be like a puzzle and when combined with good writing skills, you can master it and watch your visitor traffic climb - as well as your search engine ranking.

Optimizing your pages for SEO, tweaking each one and updating from time to time is a strong indicator to the major search engines that you are here to stay and an authority within your chosen niche.

Some say SEO is an art.....

Some say SEO is a science.....

Some say SEO is a pain in the butt ! :-)

Regardless, I urge you to learn search engine optimization in wee little chunks. It has taken me a while, but the benefits are worth the education. For me, it's fun. It does take time and the search engines change their algorithms and are getting smarter. But, essentially, they force us to stay at the top of our game when it comes to building websites that are worthy of praise.