Search engine optimization involves tailoring your site in a manner that aligns with a few different processes:

• The way in which users search the web;
• The way in which users interact with your website; and
• The way in which Google's spiders crawl your site during the indexing process.

Every SEO practice can be traced back to one of these three processes. For instance, interlinking your website's pages allows for an improved user experience. By using relevant keywords in your website content, you make it possible for Google to identify your site's content as a relevant match for an individual's search query. Including an XML sitemap provides useful information for Google's spider, so your site will be crawled properly.

Without search engine optimization, your website will miss out on a range of different benefits, falling woefully short of its full potential. The site will receive a fraction of the traffic that it would otherwise receive if it was fully optimized.

What's more, Google places tremendous emphasis on a positive user experience. This focus on a positive user experience was the primary driving factor that prompted the game-changing Google algorithm updates known as Panda.