Search engine optimization is a process in which analysis of a web site is done from search engine perspective. Following things are analyzed

• Target segment (Niche) of the website
• Keyword users type belonging to that target segment
• Density of those keywords in the content of the site
• Does site theme supports those keywords
• General site navigation and text used in anchor text linking
• Competition in that target segment
• Resources used by the competitiors
• Other sites linking to that site
• Age of the site

After analysis of these factors a report is prepared which discusses the problems a site is facing with respect to the above factors. How much optimization efforts are required for the site to come up in search engine ranking. How much time it would take before actual results are seen. A ethical solution would be to help site overcome the natural shortcomings arisen due to ignorance or improper knowledge of search engine functioning.Ethical search engine optimization solution would require time, lot of hard work on the part of seo and patience to wait until actual results are achieved. The success achieved through ethical seo efforts are long term gains and display stability. In comparison unethical seo efforts show quick results but are very damaging in long term.

Site can gather quality backlinks through ethical search engine optimization methods like following

• There are so many directories in which site could be submitted for one way text link
• By submitting articles related to the topic of your site's subject
• By participating in forum related to your site
• By building blog for your site
• By creating discussion groups like yahoo groups, google groups, group on aol etc
• By Social Media participation

Google penalizes site for following types of backlinks

• Back link coming from link farm
• Site wide back links given by directories
• paid back links from high page rank site
• excessive cross linking between related sites with substantial duplicate content

Search engine optimization is necessary for web sites which want to do business online and want good presence in web world.