Search engine optimisation - optimization in the USA - or seo is the creative and time-consuming art of getting a site to rank as high as it possible can in Google, Yahoo and MSN for a set of chosen keywords. It can be white hat seo or black hat seo, and a lot in-between. Some keywords are competitive ie it might be hard to rank better (and you could make money from them if your site is in the top 3 in Google) and some are uncompetitive meaning easy to optimize for.
It's thought Content IS King and Links ARE Queen. So using this simple formula by adding good content and generating lots of quality links you can reasonably ensure good ranking in Google, at least.If you employ a company to manage your seo campaign, or even if you do it yourself, you're best option is to be as white as possible, so for instance, a good place to start is Google Webmaster Guidelines. Sure you may bend the rules, but if you break them completely, expect consequences. If you want to know more about ethical link building techniques, Jim Boykin has a lot of smashing ideas.
This page forms part of our SEO Mythbusters Test #1. Sandpetra