In conclusion, search engine optimization in an effective method for website marketing. Although SEO can take a serious time (and possibly financial) investment, simple steps can be taken to improve your search engine effectiveness.

Remember to choose keywords that you can be competitive in. Also, take advantage of XHTML/CSS to improve your code to text ratio (while the text to code ratio is debatable, more content can never hurt). Additionally, swapping links with fellow bloggers/web masters can help boost your page rank.

Remember though, that the best search engine optimization in the world can not increase your recurring visitors if you don’t provide high quality content. In the world of user generated content (blogs, portals, video sites, etc), there is nothing better than having great content on your site. While search engine optimization can provide you with drastic results, creating valuable websites requires a significant investment of time (and sometimes money). SEO should be used as one of the many web marketing tools in your promotional arsenal … not the only one.