Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O. or SEO) is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine.

SEO refers to the improvement of unpaid results (known as “natural” or “organic” results) and excludes direct traffic/visitors and the purchase of paid placement.

S.E.O. may target different kinds of searches, including image search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, adding content, and modifying HTML and associated coding to increase its relevance to specific keywords and remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. [citation needed] Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks or inbound links is another SEO tactic. By May 2015, mobile search had surpassed desktop search.

As an Internet marketing strategy, S.E.O. considers how search engines work, the computer-programmed algorithms that dictate search engine behavior, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. SEO is performed because a website will receive more visitors from a search engine the higher the website ranks on the search engine results page (SERP). These visitors can then be converted into customers.

SEO differs from local search engine optimization. The latter is focused on optimizing a business’ online presence so that its web pages will be displayed by search engines when a user enters a local search for its products or services. The former, instead, is more focused on national or international searches.