SEO can help Web site owners generate traffic by prompting Web users to visit your site, and this can mean everything to a Web site owner. Many factors contribute to Web traffic, such as a site's popularity and marketability, and they are covered by SEO.

  There are two basic ways to optimize your Web site to rank well in search engine results pages (SERP's) – on-page and off-page optimization. The good news is that the great majority of Web sites have not been optimized in any manner whatsoever. This makes SEO a significant advantage for anyone willing to take the time and effort to undertake it. It also means that, even if you only do a minimal amount of optimization, you gain an immediate edge over most Web sites out there.

  Doing SEO on-page means you consider factors like giving your pages the right title, keyword density, header tags and meta description tag. A proper title is one that contains your keyword and accurately sums up or describes your content. Keywords should also appear in the header tags and should be generally sprinkled in the copy, but not to the extent of spamming. SEO doesn't mean sacrificing quality for the sake of keyword count.

  Search engines can detect sites that make use of spamming to increase their traffic and optimize their pages. There are webmasters out there that abuse SEO and uses prohibited link building techniques. However, such techniques are frowned upon and rarely work because search engines have come up with more ways to prevent and detect keyword spamming. And even if these ploys succeed in getting visitors, these visitors will almost certainly not enjoy their experience on the site, so what's the use.

  On the other hand, SEO off-page means you consider factors such as link building. These means you should try to generate links on other sites that lead to your own Web site. Such sites not only draw in visitors, they also make you more visible to Google and other search engines.

  Link building takes into account not only the quantity of your links but also their quality, and this can sometimes be difficult to control. Search engines give great important to sites that have valuable content which other webmasters would like to tap into. In a sense, you could say these webmasters are casting votes about your site's quality and popularity.

  To get more links, you can ask other webmasters to include use of your keywords in their sites, and they will be inclined to do so if you have something of value. You can also work out an exchange deal of sorts where you will put their link on your site if they do the same for you. Just make sure that the sites you tie up with are reputable and credible to improve the traffic and image of your site.

  Since SEO is free, make use of the benefits that it offers. Once you get a taste of improved traffic, you will never want to turn back.