Plan Ahead – This is probably the most important, or at least pretty close. I really came to realize this recently, when once again for the umpteenth time, I should have thought about something a little more carefully when I was originally set up one of my sites. I did not use the URLs I should have and, gee … with all those back links out there, little to late to go back and change them, for the ones I could even change in the first place.
Really think it out, the structure and page names. You can always change things like keywords or content later if you need to. But once you set a page up and it makes it's rounds across the net, you might not be able to change it. You can always delete it and point to a new page, but if you have traffic and rankings, it's probably going to go bye-bye.
* Choose your Keywords Carefully – Although I've mentioned before that keywords are some thing you can change later, because they are really content, if you've used them for anchor text, like on back links, that work might go to waste.
Take my word for it, do it right the first time, at least as best as you can muster. I once used the wrong keyword tool and had to re-do like 400 pages .. only took like two weeks. ouch.
* Use Anchor Text – I mentioned this in another thread, but it bears repeating again because, well … it's pretty important.
When ever your out creating back links, such as submitting articles, do not just put in your site url, or your site name (probably not your keywords), but instead use the proper keywords in your links. Makes a huge difference how you rank.
* Give it time – Good search engine rankings take time, it's not going to happen over night, have some patience. Even if you did want it to happen fast and created thousands of pages and hundreds of back links over night, the SE spider are going to notice and smell something fishy.
