SEO involves formatting a web page so that search engine algorithms score it highly for the relevant keyword.

Each page should be optimized for only one keyword so that the page is listed in as high a position as possible for that keyword.

Understand how search engines work, apply SEO to your website and ensure a search engine listing worth having. So, how does a search engine such as Google work?

Actually nobody knows, except some Google employees. However, by carrying out simple actions and examining results, you can reach conclusions as to what Google is looking at. But remember Google evaluates more than a 100 variables. However, we know that some variables have more weighting than others.

SEO variables occur in groups, your SEO strategy should take as many of these into account as possible. These groups can be categorized into increasingly narrower sets. The variables with most weighting are currently believed to be:

ON-PAGE WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION

On-page optimization is carried out on the web page itself. This can either be on the visible part, or in the underlying source html code. This can be further classified into:

a) The Keywords. Each web page should be optimized for one keyword, and can contain a few sub-keywords for which the page might also be listed. These, however, are less important than they once as Google uses a different algorithm - the latent semantic indexing (LSI) algorithm. There is software available to help you choose keywords for your needs. Do not overuse keywords - instead use related text and synonyms to tell the spiders what your page is about.

b) The Title is within the html 'Title' tag before the 'Body' section of the page html. It should contain the keyword, it is the title at the head of the search engine listing for the page.

c) Meta Tags. In SEO, the Meta tags, again contained prior to the visible 'body' section, provide search engine spiders details about your site. The tags of use today are:

i. The Description Meta tag. This explains the content of your site and is shown below the title in your search engine listing. Include in it any toll-free number you might have.

ii. The Keyword Meta tag. Not generally used, but it  does no harm.

iii. The Robots Meta tag is to prevent access to any page from spiders. Use blank even if you are not blocking anything.

d) Put Headings Page and paragraph headings in bold  within H (heading) html tags, H1 for page and H2 for paragraph headings. Use keywords as heading tags stress the importance of the text within them, especially if formatted bold.

e) Navigation Links

i. Navigation is best if you use keyword anchor text with a sketch of the page linked below it.

ii. Arrange your html so that the crawler sees body text first, then links to lead it away from your page. Importance is on the first 100 words and the last paragraph, so don't let these words be your navigation links.

iii. Be careful of your on-site linking strategy. There is a formula you can use to maximize the PageRank points for each or any individual page.

OFF-PAGE WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION

Off-page optimization includes one-way back links, reciprocal linking, directory submissions, article marketing, interlinking your own sites and blogs, use of social bookmarking sites, social networking  and so on.

SEO techniques may be more important than on-page SEO, and it is possible to see a page without content but adverts at position

 #1 on Google because of the other web pages linked to it.