Definition
A process of choosing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your site and ensuring that this ranks your site highly in search engines so that when someone searches for specific phrases it returns your site on tops.
The Process
It basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate link building process. The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves. Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results.
The astonishing Aspect
A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually. Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine.
Why New Sites should strive to have a backlink from another site with higher PR
New sites need not be “submitted” to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.
What if you cannot do SEO yourself?
If you are unable to research and choose keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to hire someone to work with you on these issues.
SEO Business
Search engine marketing and promotion companies, will look at the plan for your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and website traffic. If you wish, they will also provide ongoing consultation and reporting to monitor your website and make recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your site traffic flow and your search engine ranking high.
SEO Experts and Web Designers - The 2 Special Ones
Your search engine optimization experts work with your web designer to build an integrated plan right away so that all aspects of design are considered at the same time.
What’s Next?
=> Search Engine Friendly Pages
=> How Do Search Engines Work - Web Crawlers / Web Spiders
=> The Importance of Search Engines
=> Submitting Your Website to Search Engines
And don't forget to Subscribe, it's 100% Free..
NOTE: I will now be blogging only on WeekEnds
If you own a vBulletin or any forum softwares, there are plugins out there to SEO your board. For vBulletin there is vBSEO, IPB got CommunitySEO, phpBB has phpbbseo, etc.
Best way to go about SEOing your site is just getting fresh quality content, link building, and promoting!
Thanks for the informative comment Garala!
Cheers!