Is it really so important to optimize a web page or why optimize?
Search engine optimization's first goal for your web site is to rank it at a position where it can be easily found by a web surfer. Design, convenient menus and site usability as a whole are very important but less so if a person is just seeking information. Search engine crawlers do not recognize modern design, graphics or pictures. It's important to look at your pages with the eyes of a search engine spider.
When a user searching on a query (terms related to information they'd like to find), search engines will return a variety of search results in a page - including lists of files, articles, documents, and websites - that are all highly relevant to the query. Rank indicates where exactly a particular web page or web site was listed -- be it on the first page of results, the second page or perhaps the 200th page. Alternatively, it might also be said to be ranked first among all results, or 12th, or 111th.
Search engine optimization attempts to improve rankings for relevant keywords and move to the top within the organic listings in search engine results pages.