There are many facets to search engine optimisation (SEO) - the process of organically increasing the search engine ranking of a website and thereby, the traffic that it receives. Here's a quick checklist of things to do and things to avoid while setting up your SEO strategy.


Do's

1. Focus only on important links related to your site. Having a huge number of outbound links have not been important for a long time. More crucial that out bound links is that the more popular sites on the Web link to your website.
2. Make sure that the links to your site are applicable to your area of expertise. Ensure that your site is listed in all of the major directories: Yahoo!, the Open Directory Project. Search for professional organizations related to your industry and get your site placed there.
3. Your website optimisation should work for both search engine spiders as well as human visitors. An uncluttered layout, comprehensive intra-site navigational links and good content must be the metrics to define user operability. Search engines actually prefer what humans do, so keep your pages uncluttered and easy to use.
4. Monitor your progress 24/7. Use software and online tools like Page Rank checkers, keyword popularity rating tools to constantly supervise your progress. The information, thus gathered, can help in the ongoing SEO for that site by enabling tweaks in different aspects of the website.

Dont's

1. Do not forget that search engine marketing is a constantly evolving scenario. Google, as do other major search engines, continually modifies the parameters of its search algorithm. An SEO company needs to pay close attention to the little changes that occur, to offer the top ranks on the search engine results page.
2. Do not choose a random SEO firm to solely save on costs. SEO is a specialized task to be handled by experienced IT professionals. There are overnight start-ups that employ black-hat (banned) SEO techniques which could land your business in serious trouble with a ban.
3. Do not be impatient about results of SEO. Since the process is organic, your website's recognition and value are increased in a multitude of ways by the right SEO firm. If all goes well, top rankings will be permanent, not a fly-by-night experience.