1. Identify Correct Keywords

   Every SEO campaign starts with identifying the keywords that are searched for, and are relevant to what your website offers. Your site should include keywords that your prospective clients type into the search engines. Useful keyword research tools include the Google keyword tool, Wordtracker and Overture.
   
   

2. Develop Inbound Links

   Developing high quality, relevant links to your site is vital to achieving a high search engine ranking. They are used as a factor by all search engines to evaluate how important a website is and consequently where the site should be ranked. Submitting your website to online directories and relevant (to your business) blog sites is a very useful method of increasing targeted visits to your site.
   
   Beware of certain sites, such as link farms and seo-blacklisted blog-sites which can harm your ranking and may even result in your site being banned by the major search engines.
   
   

3. Optimise Your Page Titles

   One of the most vital SEO techniques is to position your keywords within the Title description for each page. It is (generally) important that the title tag is unique to ascertain the subject matter of each page, for the benefit of the search engines.
   
   In other words, each page often (but not always) benefits from having a unique title tag, however how to do this effectively for a given site is a matter of trial-and-error if you are a beginner.
   
   Optimising page titles will often improve your search engine rankings if you have overlooked this area.
   
   

4. Build Internal Links

   Ensure that you have a high-quality link structure on your site, so that not only potential customers, but also the search engine spiders can find and index all pages on your site. Use the "noindex" tag as little as possible - Google finds the overuse of this tag as a possible keyword-spamming technique to try and gain an advantage for other pages on your website.
   
   

5. Meta Tags

   There is much debate regarding the value of META tags. Best advice is to still include META tags as part of your SEO strategy, but to understand that they are not the be-all-and-end-all, as some would have you believe. Google, for example, largely ignores them. The Title tag is important.
   
   

6. Optimise Every Page

   Select relevant keywords for each page, relating to the content on that particular page. Ensure you have links between pages to ensure that you whole site is indexed - that way you will be in a position to compete for more than one keyword in order to attract people searching for your goods and services.
   
   

7. Don’t Cheat the Search Engines and Update Regularly
   
   Don’t keyword-spam, don’t use hidden text, don’t join link farms, and don’t stuff your keyword descriptions and META tags with keywords. The penalties will far outweigh the short-lived advantages. Don’t risk being banned by the search engines.
   
   Additionally, a website that has not been updated on a regular basis will discourage prospective clients and seo spiders alike, so make sure your site is constantly updated with fresh, unique content.
   
   

8. Include a Site Map

   A site map, in addition to a clear navigation bar and links between pages, will help visitors to your website find what they are looking for. It will also ensure that search engine spiders visit and index each of your pages. You can create a HTML sitemap or, alternatively it can be generated through Google or other web applications.
   
   Note, however, that a site map can also work against you by diluting the effectiveness of your main keywords, so be careful how you use it.
   
   

9. Beware Flash

   If you must use Flash to impress your visitors, remember that search engine spiders cannot read Flash content, in the same way as they cannot read content within images. Whatever you do, don't build your site entirely in Flash.
   
   

10. Don't Overdo It
    
    Be careful as you optimise. If you're a beginner take it step-by-step and don't put everything in at once or you could get your site blacklisted for keyword-spamming and other violations. If in doubt optimise over an extended period of time.
    
    

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