Search Engine Optimization or ‘SEO’ can be a highly cost-effective form of marketing online, second generally only to email marketing in terms of return on investment. Your SEO program will focus on building traffic through ‘natural’ search engine visibility on your best keywords.
What does ‘natural’ mean? Search engines rank websites according to special algorithms which can include hundreds of factors. In some niche categories, it may be possible to rank by simply adjusting key title tags. However, in more competitive categories SEO can get much more complicated, necessitating the involvement of multiple factors across multiple disciplines. To rank ‘naturally’ for high SERP placement, especially over the long term, it is essentially to actually deliver quality user content, or optimize content for humans, versus for search engine bots. Overtime, as algorithms shift, it is generally cheaters that get shook out, while quality sites tend to stay high, or further ascend the website rankings without any additional modifications following the SERP’s algorithm adjustment.
Regardless of category competitiveness, it is always smart to start SEO efforts with keyword research.
On an ongoing basis, results are monitored and website pages are adjusted accordingly. This happens on an iterative basis until you are content with the level of sales your website property is helping to generate. Periodic maintenance can then happen on an as needed basis each year or as frequently as indicated by your online category.