What is search engine optimization?

How will it help me?

I am writing this article for those who are serious about getting their site to the top of search engine listings like Google, msn, yahoo etc. Don't read another word if search engine optimization is not your priority now. Those who are interested promise me you are going to use my guidelines on your pages to reap financial benefits. Then lets get to the big question.
Lets begin with our primary question. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ?
As per wikipedia :- “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.” In short this is what you need if you want your site listed when some one searches for a particular keyword in the top search engines. From now on when we say Google it will refer to all major search engines that use organic search method like windows live search, overture, yahoo etc etc.