1. Research your keywords
It may sound obvious but if you get this wrong, your campaign will not succeed. Really think about what you want to be found for on the web. Once you have a list of keywords, make sure they are words which people do actually search for. You can do this on Google AdWords. Do not be driven by SEO companies which guarantee number 1 position on Google. Firstly, Google themselves advise never to trust a company which promise this as results change on an almost daily basis. Secondly, they may get you to number 1, but it will probably be for a search term which has no competition as nobody searches for it.
2. Title Tags
Whilst title tags are not the holy grail of SEO that they once were, they do still serve a purpose and are an important factor to get right. Tags should be no longer than 70 characters long as this is the amount Google will display on its search results pages. They should contain your keyword / s for that page, but should not look spammy.
3. Content
This really is the most important factor to get right. Content is King, and Google are rewarding good quality, original, updated content over and above anything else at the moment. No longer can you stuff your pages with keywords and expect to stay at number 1. In fact, you will get penalized for this. Succesful websites these days must have a good amount of well written original content. Not only that, it must be regularly updated. This can be in the form of blogs, or news articles, or perhaps just adding more content to your pages. Ensure you have a relevant keyword for each page, and make sure that it features in the titles and content, but not too much as you do not want your site to appear spammy.
4. Links
This year, Google releases an algorithm update called Google Penguin, which penalises spammy back links to sites. This means that whereas before, a website could benefit from having thousands of links pointing to it, whether or not they were from a relevant source, this will now be penalized. All links must come from quality, relevant sites. When you start your SEO campaign, you must insist wherever you have any bad links. If you do, you should ask the relevant webmaster to remove the links as these can, and possibly already have had a detrimental effect on your site.
5. Social Media
In days gone by, SEO and social media were seen as two separate entities. Nowadays, they are very much part and parcel of the same thing. Make sure you have a Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn account, and link them to your website. Update them regularly as not only will they help raise your web profile, they will also show that your company is current, and they provide valuable links to your site.
