In today's Internet age, browsing the web usually means a stop at an Internet search engine. Today's most popular search engines usually use a page ranking system when indexing and listing web sites. The higher a "page rank" value a web site has, the earlier it will appear on the search engine. Search Engine Optimization or SOE for short refers to the process of improving a web site's "page rank", thereby improving its search engine listing which usually translates to more visitors.

Most leading search engines today use crawlers to find web sites for their indexes. The goal of Search Engine Optimization is to edit a web site's content and HTML code to increase its relevance. This in turn increases its page rank.

The problem with Search Engine Optimization is that while increasing a page rank should theoretically increase site traffic from search engines, the success rate of dramatically increasing visitors depends on a variety of factors. Some of these factors are largely out of the control of web developers and Search Engine Optimizers. An example of such a factor would be a change in a search engine's algorithm which would subsequently reduce a site's page rank in relation to specific keywords.

Another problem is there is no guarantee that Search Engine Optimization will dramatically increase a web site's position in the search listing. Because there are a finite number of spots available on the first few pages of a search listing, it is increasingly difficult to secure such spots, especially if the keywords used are more common.

One alternative is to consider paid advertisements on both search engines and other web sites. The goal here is to attract visitors who are looking for a specific service by advertising on search keywords these visitors may be using to find what they are looking for. A good example is Google's Adwords program which places advertisements among its search results. These advertisement placements are usually highly visible and can potentially generate a substantial amount of traffic, depending on your advertisement budget.