I think a lot of people are still a little in the dark about WIKIs and SEO so I thought I'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone in this article by discussing WIKIs and then showing you info about SEO that I found on a WIKI (look how that works :).
WIKIs
In a nutshell, a WIKI is a collection of content about something, with a twist. That content could be volcanoes, physics, a company's offerings, or anything at all people want to share information about. The twist is that anyone who has access to a WIKI can edit or add the content. For example, say I wanted to start a site on volcanoes. Normally, me as the expert would post my information and people on the web can read it. But if I set up a WIKI, I could post my info, but anybody else can add to it or even edit the existing content. So it basically puts the control of the content into the public's hands. This may sound risky, because you risk an uninformed person posting incorrect information. But WIKIs have actually been used to great success. Wikipedia.org is a HUGE online encylopedia and the entire thing is a WIKI. If you haven't been there, check it out! Seriously. You can find/edit/add information on anything you want.
This leads me to the second topic: SEO. I was going to discuss SEO a little, but the introduction on Wikipedia is pretty good so I thought I'd just post it here and if you like it, you can go read some more at Wikipedia.org. So without further ado, here ya go:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
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.
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.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevancy, SEO considers how search algorithms
work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's
coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that
could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, and making sure that the content is easily indexed by search engines and also appeals to human visitors.
The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants
who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by
employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers
may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader
marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.