Search engines like Google and others similar, are critical to helping people connect with the web businesses they are searching for. There are companies out there that claim to get your page rankings so high that you'll gladly pay high prices to make it happen. Not every website can or wants to go that route however.

Getting organic web traffic is usually one of the most desirable goals in web promotion. This definition means when someone types in a search engine a word or phrase, these are the websites the search pulls up. This is different than the paid ads you find to the right column, which can be a very expensive route to go. Here's what search engine optimization comes down to:

1. Content, content, content. You need real content on your web, this is content that has real meaning to real people, not just stuffing a bunch of keywords that make no sense. Search engines use programs called web crawlers or web spiders that list web sites. The one thing those web crawlers looks for is content. They figure out if a site has content by tracing keyword phrases. This is why search engine optimization usually starts by picking keywords and writing content around them; many web site marketing experts advocate writing a high density of the same keywords, but doing too much of this can actually work against you.

2. Links back to your site from other's sites provide validation. The more links particularly links that relate to your site's content, the higher your page ranking will be. Methods to get link backs range from link exchanges with other websites in related topics, to writing articles about the topic you're dealing with, to social bookmarking sites and such.

3. Updated and fresh content. This is important both for your human visitors as well as the web spiders. When both see there's new content added at least 3 times a week, they will be more likely to come back more often. It takes an average of seven visits before someone will purchase a product or post on a forum, so it's important to give both reason to return to your site.

4. Navigational links that are clear and make sense from your main home page. There's nothing more frustrating than not being able to find what you are looking for easily, most visitors will leave quickly if it's seems too confusing to find what they are looking for.

5. Text rules everything in web content. Search engine spiders ignore Javascript, they ignore graphics, and until very recently, they couldn't read text in Flash animations. If the search engine spiders can't read it, it doesn't get used to help your page rankings.

The real secret of long term success in search optimization is to make your web site as usable as you can. Make it easy to navigate for real people, who want to read about your niche, and with content that makes them come back.