Yahoo has recently submitted a patent that contains a method for automating seo. While Yahoo’s patent does detail some of the basics for optimising a page, many of the things that are involved in make websites and web pages search engine friendly are not addressed. One of the main reasons behind seo has nothing to do with page rank and using the most popular keywords to attract traffic.

Good seo involves a knowledge of how the search engines work to make indexing a site quicker and easier and to understand the pages that are being indexed. Seo also involves a knowledge of your audience to know what sort of people are interested in what a site offers, and how they might find that site more easily. When you engage in seo in this way then the words on your web page may not be the most popular or regularly searched words, but they should be the right words for attracting the type of audience that you want

Some people may applaud what Yahoo intends to do, but for others a patent proposing search engines should be involved in seo, might be regarded as creating a conflict of interests that raises ethical questions.