Many website owners new and old simply wonder why their website never makes it to the top of the search engines. They consistently lag at the mid to bottom of their respective keyword choices and never achieve the pinnacle of what so many strive for, the first page of a keyword search.

The title to this article is very relevant as many simply do not know the benefits of proper SEO (search engine optimization) practices. For many it means paying a company to get them to the top of the search engine results, however, most of these promises are simply hype. Do not get me wrong as there are some great SEO experts providing quality services, but there are also some unreputable ones that promise you the Sun and deliver you Pluto.

So what is SEO? Simply put it is a method of improving both the internal and external aspects of your website to increase its search engine traffic.

A great article to read is found at SEOmoz.org and provides those that are new to SEO a great reference on how to begin optimizing your website for the search engines.

I got an e-mail from an SEO company.

We all get these e-mails, but do not fall for them. They are typically nothing more then a scam trying to get your hard earned money. Most of them promise you the number one position in Google and this is simply not going to happen. Well at least from their work if they do provide you any to begin with.

Just do yourself a favor and quickly click the delete button on these e-mails. You will be better off.

So how can I get to the top of Google?

Well you will not get it by magic or companies that promise you they can do it. There is simply no way to guarantee that you will make it to the number one spot. However, if you are working on building quality links that lead back to your domain from relevant sites you stand a better chance.

One method you can use to get to the top of a keyword search is to look for keywords that are less competitive, but still offer a significant amount of traffic. After you have found the ones you want to use gear your websites content to provide you with better search results in these chosen keywords.

Do not though and I repeat do not try to stuff keywords throughout your content. What does this mean? Well do not make tons of references to the keywords that you are targeting. Simply write good content and keep doing so on similar topics that require the use of your chosen keywords. Google and other search engines will penalize your site if you stuff keywords.

A tool that can help you find good keywords is available from Google here. With Google Trends you will be able to see what the daily hot keywords are and if you do a search in your proposed keyword you can see how it fares.

There are many keywords that receive significant traffic still and offer opportunities to those who are willing to gear their websites towards these keywords.

SEO is important and should not be taken lightly, however, if you are just starting out then trying to compete in highly competitive keyword markets is not advised. As your site gains in popularity you may be able to make a push into these keywords with proper SEO and compete against the more established sites, but trying to do so from the beginning is not advised.