TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:This week, a checklist of don'ts: things to avoid whether you're doing SEO yourself or having an outside firm do it for you.

Small Business SEO Checklist: The Don'ts

1. Don't reply to the SEO spam you get via e-mail.  You don't need to submit to 1,000 search engines or 500 directories. You can't buy 2,000 quality links for $50. And no reputable SEO can guarantee a number one ranking on any search engine for keywords that matter. The kind of SEO company you want to hire doesn't send out spam.

6. Don't waste your time submitting your URL to search engines. The crawler-based search engines will find your site more quickly as soon as you get a link from another web site already being crawled. Search engine submission died a few years ago.

Quote:Small Business SEO Checklist: The Do's

1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn't a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

2. Be patient. SEO isn't about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online...

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you'll need web analytics software in place so you can track what's working and what's not.

6. Build a great web site. I'm sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, "Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?" Be honest. If it's not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page...