Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is a process of making your website 'search engine friendly'. When the search engines can find your site, you'll have a better chance of having top listings in the search results. When this happens, the search engines will literally send you free web traffic.

There are several SEO tasks that you can outsource to a virtual assistant. This will free up your time to work on other aspects of your business. One of the most important parts of any SEO activity is searching for quality keywords.

A keyword or phrase is a word or group of words that a person would use in an internet search to find your business, products, or services. Your virtual assistant can use a keyword selection tool such as Wordtracker to search for keywords and phrases that apply to your business and target market.

Once these keywords are found, they can be used within the HTML coding of your website, including the title tags and meta tags. This can be done by yourself or you can outsource this task, as well.

These keywords should also be used within the content found on your website. This can be done in several different ways. If you choose, you can write the articles yourself or you can outsource this to a ghostwriter or VA. A third option is buy prewritten content, also known as private label rights content (PLR) and have a VA rewrite them.

Another way to use keywords and articles to generate traffic to your site is by having your VA submit these articles to article reprint directories. Other website owners and bloggers visit these sites and in exchange for allowing them to publish the article on their site, they will publish an author bio about you, which can include a link to your site.

In addition to reprint directories, a VA can help research complimentary sites who may be more than happy to receive some content from you and, in exchange, provide a one way link to your site.

Having a site map may help your SEO, as it provides a clear cut way for the search engines to see each part of your website. The building of this site map can easily be outsourced to a VA.

If you had previously established any link exchanges with another business, you can have your VA check and make sure they are still publishing your link.

Experienced VAs will also understand how to read website statistics and can keep tabs on this for you. They will be able to see how many links are coming into your site, which ones are delivering the most traffic and which keywords are sending you the most traffic.

New VAs may be intimidated about performing SEO tasks, but taking the time to teach them these things will help you manage your time and your business well into the future.