In order to understand what Website Optimization is, you have to have a basic understanding of how the internet is set up.

Websites can be thought of as "stores" or "offices" which can be visited from the comfort of your home. Although our society still calls for a visit to a "real" store or office, the future will probably have us using our computers more often to buy merchandise or seek information online.

Your website is among thousands, millions, maybe even billions of websites that make up the Internet. The old term, "information highway", refers to today's modern term, "Internet", filled with "bumper-to-bumper" traffic! The Internet is a very busy highway, indeed.

If you think of your website as a store or office, you want people to visit, buy, obtain information, and to communicate with you. Your store or office is open for business, so how do you get people to "come in?"

People usually go to a directory or a search engine to find information. A directory, such as yellowpages.com, is ideal for people who have an idea of what they are looking for, such as "carpet cleaners" or to look up a local business or address. Most directories of this type require you to pay a fee to have a "featured listing" as opposed to a standard listing.

A search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN, will return listings relevant to a search query - a keyword or phrase typed into the search box. For example, if you are looking for websites that have to do with "finding a Nanny", you would most likely use a search engine.

Before building a website, your website design and content should consider which keyword targets would be most likely used in a search query to find your site. This includes the page titles, meta tags (source code), content, and filenames of each page URL (website page address). If your site was built without optimization in mind, then your at a disadvantage.