I applied for this job because I know I can write although I had no idea what SEO was. (I hope my boss isn't reading this!) I've been picking up bits and pieces along the way and it's all beginning to make sense now.

SEO means Search Engine Optimiser. Of course, I knew about search engines. I use them all the time - who doesn't these days? What I didn't know was how they work. Sounds terrible now but I didn't really think about why a site was ranked higher than another, other than that they might be better products or it was just a random listing.

I also knew that I very rarely bothered looking on page two of the Google search engine, let alone bother going any further or even trying a different search engine.

Google has, for some years now, been the top, most efficient search engine, the most popular and therefore the one we will refer to in this article. It indexes pages by using 'robots' or 'spiders', namely Googlebot to travel through web sites using links on the pages.

When it comes across a new web page it will transfer all the code on that page back to a data centre and may visit indexed pages everyday to keep the index fresh.

With millions of pages to maintain, Google use a formula to score relevant websites for a specific query and this decides where they will go in the search results.

The aim for website owners is to get their pages ranked as high as possible in a search engine. This is the best form of advertising available in the modern world, potentially reaching billions of people per day and will generate much business for your company.

This is where SEO companies can help. After a great deal of research they know how to optimise your website to achieve the best rankings possible. Of course, this is all dependent on Google changing their rules, which they do occasionally, so it is an ongoing process to gain and keep your ranking.

There are various ways to make your site search engine friendly. Keywords will play a vital role in your listing. Keyword research is an essential part of SEO and if starting from scratch with a site, keywords can be incorporated into your title tags and descriptions.

These are the first things a search engine will look at. Ideally, they should be key words or phrases that appear on you web page and also the most frequently searched words. These key words can all be researched and added to your tags and content from the outset.

Good content on your web page with the right density of keywords, without overdoing it and risking a 'spammy' appearance will increase your popularity with Google.

It is important to have plenty of good, informative content that lets Google know you are providing a worthwhile service to your readers.

The number of web pages that are linking back to your site will also increase your ratings as will the quality of those pages.

Article writing has been a tried and tested method of generating traffic to your website for many years. Articles targeting your keywords are written by people like me, and will be published in thousands of directories, article banks and ezines. These articles will contain links back to your website.

The more exposure an article receives, the more links you achieve and the more traffic is generated, thus pushing your site up in the Google page listings.

Articles can appear in search engines within days of submission. These article directories and article bank sites with high page ranks get spidered more frequently than your own web site. At the same time, your link will be spidered, bringing with it the boost to your page listing.

Article writing is effective in that it will give your site an instant traffic boost but also gives long term results because articles will stay around for months and years, and as long as those key phrases are being searched, it will continue to generate traffic for your site.

The internet is the most widely used form of advertising and is not about to go away. Therefore, to advertise your product or service through a website that has been optimised by an SEO company for its results is the most effective way of generating business.