As opposed to other internet marketing practices, SEO focuses on increasing the volume of unpaid "natural", or "organic" traffic through search results. The goal of SEO strategies is to have a website rank higher in search engine results for the targeted keyword phrases. The assumption is that by ranking higher in search results, a website will receive more visitors and a stronger online presence.From a marketing perspective, SEO considers how search engines (most importantly Google) function and what they value. The process of optimising a website most often deals with adjusting the content and html code of a website to match a search engine's algorithmic priorities.An algorithm is a mathematical equation with well over one
hundred criteria used by search engines to determine search results rankings whenever a search is conducted. The aim of the algorithm is to display the websites most relevant to the search query in order or relevance.SEO has grown in popularity in recent years as more businesses realise its importance. A shift in consumer behaviour has also seen the average consumers preference towards searching and purchasing products and services online grow.Initially, there was a misconception that SEO was for large companies with large resources only however with the barriers to selling online have been broken down and many small businesses around the world are now experiencing tremendous results by selling through online channels.