Your website should not only be enticing to the user, but also to the search engines that internet users visit every day. Search engines regularly add sites to their archives so that people can type in a few keywords and easily find the best matched websites related to what they're looking for. SEO, or search engine optimization, is integrated marketing and promotion at its most viral. A major component for successful online business and professional web design is to have an innovatively created and tightly executed promotion strategy. Adding SEO into this strategy can help ensure that your website is being promoted across the internet in a strong and unforgettable way.

First, you need to know what the search engines are looking at:

1. On-site factors: Info on your webpage, such as page content and keyword placement
2. Off-site factors: this includes the reputation of the page linking to yours, the keywords linked to you and the amount of time the link to you has been around.
3. Higher rankings: If search engines can see a good combination of these two factors your rankings can and will be higher.

Now, it's time to make sure that the search engines are looking at you. These are things to have an understanding of in order to position your website for best optimization.

1. Possessing good site architecture: This offers many benefits such as easy maintenance, a nicely defined hierarchy of linked pages, navigational usability for even the most basic users, and efficient site expansion.
2. Understanding keyword research: You must understand how search results will vary based on singular and plural word use, word order, head keywords with wide range meanings, and multiple specific keywords.
3. Use tags properly and put keywords in your URL: This helps search engines understand more about what specifically your site is. The site can then be better placed when users type in searches.
4. Link building and link development: The more links to your webpage the more efficiently search engines can determine how trustworthy and influential your page is.

The primary goal in understanding and utilizing these factors is to receive a high page ranking in search engine results. Think about when you conduct your own searches on sites like Google or Bing. When the results page comes up how often do you pick a site from one of the first 5-7 sites shown? How often do you navigate from the first page to the second? How often do you navigate from the second page of results to the third? The internet is all about instant gratification and users are all about finding the solution to their needs the fastest. The continued success of your site can and will be measured by the traffic it draws in as well as repeat visits from those who found it before. A professional SEO plan will help ensure that you receive top rankings, reach your target market, expand beyond it, and give you the competitive advantage to grow your overall success.