SEO is not a “set it and forget it” type thing. Not if you want to get your website and pages top ranked.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a process similar to building a multi-tiered wedding cake.

There is ongoing SEO, that sits on top of advanced SEO techniques, which are put on top of basic search engine optimization – or the “fundamentals.” You can’t get a top ranked website without building one layer at a time. And like the best wedding cakes, it takes the right “ingredients,” expertise, time, and patience.

Basic search engine optimization includes:

* Creating a search engine friendly, or “crawler” friendly website (design)

* Reviewing competitive sites, their current placement, their strategies (strengths, weaknesses)

* Identifying the appropriate keywords and keyword phrases

* Optimizing page content to create “relevancy” (which is what Google is primarily looking for)

* Building an optimized navigation scheme that is search engine friendly but also user-friendly

* Correctly programmed/written page title tags that are unique for each page of your website

* Correctly programmed/written meta-tags: description, keywords, robots, etc.

* Getting your website recognized by Google

* Getting ALL of the pages of your website recognized by Google (and other search engines)

* Installing Google Analytics for tracking website traffic, configuration, testing

* Installing Google Webmaster tools, configuration, testing

* Monitoring movement (i.e. are we moving up in rank, yes, no, how quickly)

* Making adjustments to pages and page title tags as necessary

* Building inbound links to the website from outside sources (very important!)

In most cases, this is a process that takes between an hour and two hours per page. Keep in mind, these are just the basics and primarily “on-site” factors.

If any of these variables are not appropriately and precisely addressed, it will adversely impact your ability to get pages at your website top ranked.