Answer: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of gaining and maintaining high rankings for your website in organic (nonpaid) results when a potential customer looks for an HVAC company on a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. The search terms that person types, i.e., “Furnace Repair in Portland,” are called keywords. As only 10 percent of searchers look beyond the first page of the results, a goal of SEO is to have first-page rankings for as many relevant keywords as possible.