Optimization

n. The procedure or procedures used to make a system or design as effective or functional as possible, especially the mathematical techniques involved.

optimization. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/optimization (accessed: June 21, 2010).

The first time you tackle Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it is easy to forget that optimization is a process.  However, if you really want to increase the number of qualified leads who will find your company through the search engines you will need to do more than buy a few AdWords, place keywords in strategic locations, create a sitemap, and make use of appropriate tags for your content.

Optimization is about getting the best, most efficient outcomes you possibly can.  In SEO that is usually measured by new visitors, return visitors, visitors who reach certain pages, sales conversions, or any of a number of other statistics that can be found in an analytics suite.  If you do not already have analytics for your website, Google Analytics is free to use and can be added to most websites within an hour.

While each of the improvements mentioned above will give better results than an identical site that does not employ the same methods, they will only bring you up to the basic standards for the modern online marketplace.  Finding the best requires something more, and without access to the formulas that the search engines use to rank pages, that means (educated) trial and error.

Contrary to popular belief, trial and error can be remarkably effective in determining the best course of action.  But it does require a quick and reliable way to evaluate your results or you may waste time and money pursuing an ineffective strategy.

This is why analytics are so important to the SEO process.  They tell you which strategies have worked, how quickly they worked, and when they have reached the end of their life and should be replaced by other, more efficient methods.