A webmaster or someone who does Web design/development work has heard this
term before. SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” SEO involves
optimizing your Web pages so that your site will rank higher in search
results for keywords related to your content.

Over the years, there have been numerous methods for ranking higher in
search engines, like including things such as hidden text, hidden links,
redirect pages, doorway pages, link farms, and many others. Techniques that
still amount to trickery - be they old or new - can result in lower rankings
just for using them. Using these methods can be seen as cheating your way to
the top, and can even result in your domain being banned. Once banned, it’s
hard to even get back into that search engine, let alone to get a good
ranking with them.

Most search engines are looking for just a simple, clean design with a focus
on content, easy navigation, title tags, Meta tags, and image “alt” tags
that are relevant. Sites like Google require a little more than that.

How to get your site noticed

• Site design. Design your site so that your content reflects your products,
  services, and who you are.
• Link popularity. Get others who can offer complementary services or
  products to link to you. Make sure they place a link on their site to yours,
  and then you do the same with their link. For example, if your business is
  selling computers, you might trade links on your site with software
  companies, chip makers, and so on.
• Content and keywords. If you add keywords in your Meta tags, then also
  repeat them in your content. For example, if you list a word or phrase in
  your Meta keywords that represents a certain service or product you
  provide, or the city you are located in, then you should also provide that
  information in your content.
• Keyword density. Keywords are used when looking up something in a search
  engine to find your site. The percentage of keywords for your site that are
  used in your page text, as compared to the rest of the body text, is
  important in site ranking.

You’ve optimized your site… now what?

After you have your site optimized, you can start submitting your site by
hand to reach top search engines like Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, and dmoz. It
is not recommended that you submit your site using software or
“submit-it-all” services, since those methods are outlined to be unethical
practices by all search engines.

If this is something with which you are not familiar or not sure about,
hire an expert to help you with this process. It does sometimes take
trial-and-error to learn SEO. You may not get fast results when doing this,
because the time after you submit your site to the search engines it takes
4-8 weeks or longer before they index your site. Most do not guarantee to
index your site at all. So, be prepared to research and re-submit your site
if needed. It is also recommended that you re-submit your site every six months or
so.