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{{redirect|SEO}}
{{Internet Marketing}}
'''Search engine optimization''' ('''SEO''') is the process of improving the visibility of a [[website]] or a [[web page]] in [[search engine]]s via the "natural," or un-paid ("[[Organic search|organic]]" or "algorithmic"), [[Search engine results page|search results]]. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including [[image search]], [[local search (Internet)|local search]], [[video search]], [[academic databases and search engines|academic search]],<ref name="aseo">{{cite web|author=Beel, Jöran and Gipp, Bela and Wilde, Erik|url=http://www.
As an [[Internet marketing]] strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and [[HTML]] and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the [[web crawler|indexing activities]] of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of [[backlinks]], or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.
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== History ==
[[Webmaster]]s and content providers began optimizing sites for search engines in the mid-1990s, as the first search engines were cataloging the early [[World Wide Web|Web]]. Initially, all webmasters needed to do was to submit the address of a page, or [[Uniform Resource Locator|URL]], to the various engines which would send a "[[Web crawler|spider]]" to "crawl" that page, extract links to other pages from it, and return information found on the page to be [[Index (search engine)|indexed]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.
Site owners started to recognize the value of having their sites highly ranked and visible in search engine results, creating an opportunity for both [[white hat]] and [[black hat]] SEO practitioners. According to industry analyst [[Danny Sullivan (technologist)|Danny Sullivan]], the phrase "search engine optimization" probably came into use in 1997.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showpost.php?p=2119&postcount=10|title=Who Invented the Term "Search Engine Optimization"?|author=Danny Sullivan|publisher=[[Search Engine Watch]]|date=June 14, 2004|accessdate=2007-05-14}} See [http://
Early versions of search [[algorithm]]s relied on webmaster-provided information such as the keyword [[meta tag]], or index files in engines like [[Aliweb|ALIWEB]]. Meta tags provide a guide to each page's content. Using meta data to index pages was found to be less than reliable, however, because the webmaster's choice of keywords in the meta tag could potentially be an inaccurate representation of the site's actual content. Inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent data in meta tags could and did cause pages to rank for irrelevant searches.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/metacrap.htm|title=Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia|author=[[Cory Doctorow]]|date=August 26, 2001|publisher=e-LearningGuru|accessdate=2007-05-08 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20070409062313/http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/metacrap.htm |archivedate = 2007-04-09}}</ref>{{verify credibility|date=September 2011}} Web content providers also manipulated a number of attributes within the HTML source of a page in an attempt to rank well in search engines.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.
By relying so much on factors such as [[keyword density]] which were exclusively within a webmaster's control, early search engines suffered from abuse and ranking manipulation. To provide better results to their users, search engines had to adapt to ensure their [[SERP|results pages]] showed the most relevant search results, rather than unrelated pages stuffed with numerous keywords by unscrupulous webmasters. Since the success and popularity of a search engine is determined by its ability to produce the most relevant results to any given search, allowing those results to be false would turn users to find other search sources. Search engines responded by developing more complex ranking algorithms, taking into account additional factors that were more difficult for webmasters to manipulate.{{or|date=September 2011}}
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