Search engine optimization, or SEO as it is commonly called, is the process of "optimizing" your website for the search engines. In other words, it is the process of preparing your website so it will rank well in the search results.
Optimization is a two-step process. The first step involves analyzing your current market, and determining the kinds of terms you would like your website to rank for. The second step involves doing the actual optimization.

There are two ways to get your business to appear within the first couple pages of the search results. One way is by setting up a PPC campaign, where you will have to pay for each click that you send to your website - the upside is that it can put you on the top within hours, but this method can cost a fortune. This could be seen as the ideal when it comes to marketing - clients come to you! Simply having a website really isn't enough when it comes to building an online presence. After all, what use a website if nobody sees it? For that reason, Search Engine Optimization is a growing area of online marketing and one that increasing numbers of businesses are beginning to find that they cannot operate online without.

5 effective SEO tips to increase your website rankings and get more traffic:

1. Conduct an extensive keyword research. Keyword research is your homework before you start SEO. You need to know what keywords or key phrases you wish to target. There are many tools that can help you conduct an extensive keyword research, such as Google Keyword Tool, Google Suggestions and Google Insight. Start with a solid keyword research to prevent eventual loss of time and traffic.

2. Write original, good and optimized content. When it comes to SEO, the content on your website is very important. Both search engine crawlers and human love to read original and great content. So a smart way to optimize your website is to do a good SEO copywriting and ensure that you score a bull eye with both search engines and human.

3. On-page optimization. Place important keywords or key phrases in the Title, Meta Description, Meta Keywords, H1 to H3 and Alt tags of your website. Also, ensure that the coding of your website is clean to facilitate crawling by the search engine robots.

4. Submit articles and press releases. Article marketing and press release submissions are 2 very effective ways to build inbound links to your website. The more inbound links you have to your website, the easier for you to achieve high rankings on search engines. Other than building links, article and press release submission about your website will also boost your web presence more and get more traffic to your website.

5. Social media and social book marking. Actively involve yourself in the various social media platform such as Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, etc. Try to make as many friends as possible and bookmark your website, press releases or articles over there. Social book marking is a great way to build back links to your website especially if your content is good. Also, not forgetting the extra traffic too.