Search engines are continually improving their technology to return relevant results to users. They also change their methodology so that savvy optimisers don't work out what they are looking for and thereby gain a permanent advantage. The search engines want to provide their users with the best results but they don't want to become your web site's best friend, not for free. They want to sell paid listings too, so they do everything in their power to keep the playing field from becoming level. This is why what you did to optimise your web site yesterday may not produce the same results tomorrow.

SEO is the short hand term for being proactive about optimizing your web site in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines. It is a skill that you need to continually use and update but it is worth the trouble.

Why? Because the right moves can help you obtain thousands of visitors, leads and sales. The wrong tactics can bury your site deep in the search results where visibility is practically nil.

In addition to making sure the content you worked so hard to produce is found by search engines, SEO can also help boost your web site's rankings. That means that the content that has been found will be placed where searchers are more likely to see it - on pages 1 to 3 of the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Conclusion 

The online environment is becoming increasingly competitive and those companies who perform SEO will have a decided advantage in visitors and customers.