Search engines are a source of extremely targeted and cheap (if not free) traffic! I thought that it would be a pretty good idea to start a thread explaining the absolute basics of SEO.

If you got any tips that you think should be added in here then please post them below, I'll keep updating the thread.

Q. What is SEO?
A. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the art of designing your site such that it ranks well for your targeted keywords in search engines!

Q. I keep hearing statements like -- Google updated their algorithm and people lost their rankings and because of that they lost business. Why do search engines do such kind of stuff?
A. Search engines are in competition with each other to provide accurate / useful results. Sometimes, people try to manipulate the results so as to get higher ranking unfairly! It is to counter such activities that these search engines keep tweaking their algorithms.