Did your buddy tell you that you should put “paris hilton boobs” in white text on a white background at the bottom of the page so you could get people searching for that? Did you buy some service that promised to submit your sites to 3,253,313 search engines for ONLY R 500.00! - or worse- promised you (and 20.000 others Customers) to be Nr 1 On Google??
Did you put 500 keyword variations in your meta tags?

Don’t. Search engines are smarter than you. They are looking for dumb “tricks” like that and may even penalize you for them.

My Search Engine Optimazation (SEO) Checklist includes common sense:

Google is your Friend

1. Submit to Google Search Engine
2. Create a XML Sitemap of your Site and submit to Google Sitemaps (webmaster tools)
3. Create Google Analytics Account (analytical report will be send daily or weekly to you)
4. Insert Google Verification Code

Submit to Yahoo and Bing (MSN)

1. Submit XML Sitemaps to both
2. Insert Yahoo Verification Code

Submit to:

1. Ananzi (South African Sites Only)
2. SA Business Directory (South African Sites Only)

Submit to plus / minus 60 smaller Search Engines (although once submitted to Google and other major Engines they would have crawled the site already)

Insert relevant Metatags -Description, Keywords, into the Header of your Site (requires ftp access to your site)

Zen Cart Installs Only:

1. Ultimate SEO Install
2. Google XML Sitemap Extension

Verify all Outgoing Links (using a Dead Links Checker)

All these Tasks will NOT guarantee you to be Nr 1 On Google but will go a long way in helping your Site be more visible. At the end of the day it is GOOD CONTENT updated on a regular basis which will help your Site.
Maintaining a Website is an ONGOING , NEVER ENDING TASK.
As you climb in Ranking, your Competition will be watching and trying to copy your Steps.

Contact me if you need help with these Steps. Currently just R 250.00 once off to do.