Hello Visitors,

If 'Search Engine Optimization' is a term that you are hearing for the first time, here is a short explanation:

Google and other large search engines are used by millions of people on a daily basis. If you own a commercial, corporate or educational website, then the amount of visitors that these engines can 'send' to you by listing your site is enormous. But the benefit of being listed on a search engine is very small if your site is listed for the wrong keywords, or if it is listed too far below your competitors' sites (do you bother to browse to the 4th page when searching for something?).

To boost their ranking, and thus the volume of visitors to their site, companies hire a Search Engine Optimization company, or an individual SEO Professional. These professionals make sure that the structure and content of your site are clean and to-the-point, this helps people read it, but it also helps search engines grasp what your site is about better.

How is SEO done? It is done through copywriting, changing invisible HTML elements, exchanging links with other sites, cleaning up a site's internal structure, creating more content and publicizing your site through innovative channels (like this Hub Page).

Can you learn SEO? Yes - there are plenty of resources available online.

Should you do it yourself? It is usually better to hire a professional. That's because, even though the basics are simple, search engines' tactics are always changing (and so do the approaches that work for optimization), and new search-engine patents are appearing. Hiring an external SEO company let's you leave all of that research to someone else and focus on your business.

How can you tell good SEO from bad? Good SEO looks much like the text that you have been reading (no cockiness intended). It does not sound like hype or promotional text - that is because SEO is about providing useful information to people, while conscientously inserting links that help search engines find information. If your site had SEO done and it looks like it has too many links, or if the text sounds cheesy and repetitive - then you know that you can get better service.

If you enjoyed reading this small summary of SEO, then comment on it and contact me - even if just to say "hi, I liked your article". I will be glad to hear from you and to post more information on this hub. In November, I will be organizing a get-together of Toronto's SEO professionals, and if you are interested in hearing about it on this hub - you guessed it - send me a comment.

- Jacob F.