Getting started with search engine optimization can be a little daunting, though. How do search engines work? How do they judge what is relevant? What constitutes good practices and what is considered unethical? Exactly how much work will be required to achieve my goals? Have I set attainable goals, or are my expectations a little misconstrued?

These are all good questions, and ones that every business needs to answer when they create an SEO campaign. But possibly one of the most important questions is: where do you start?

The answer comes in two parts. The first involves starting with your website basics. This is what I mean by "home." These are not new things and many of them don't necessarily have the most significant effects on your search engine positioning. But that does not mean you should ignore them. For more details go to www.thesearchengineprimer.com Every little bit can help, so why not employ every little bit for maximum benefit?

Begin with the title tag. Make sure that it has more than just your company name. Include the relevant keyword or words if possible, but don't overload it. Never overload it. The same goes for the H1 tag. Make these the headlines of your page. Make sure that they are appealing, direct, and honest. And include the keywords here too. Not only does it catch the attention of the customer, but the search engines will also take notice.

The Meta data should also be remembered. It doesn't have much influence over your rankings, but it has been stated by some search engine authorities that they still have value. And it's a simple thing. Get it done.

The other part of this answer revolves around research and knowledge base. If you've been misled at some point and are trying to employ SEO methods that you "heard" work really well, you may be getting involved with things that are either completely useless or even detrimental.

You will have to know some of the search engine and optimization basics in order to construct a solid foundation. For example, are you sure you know what the search engines use to judge your website? Do you know what is considered shady tactics? Are you convinced that repeatedly clicking through your own site will improve your rankings? Are you under the impression that you can fool the search engines for any length of time?

Search engines are smart, and you must provide content that is palatable to the engines and interesting to the human visitors that arrive on your site.

This means that you have to create content that is actually readable, informative, and honest. That's for the humans. The content should also use the keywords you are targeting throughout those pages. Little things like this help the search engines understand what your page is about. Just as before, though, overdoing it is a bad idea. It is referred to as keyword stuffing and can get you severely penalized.

There is also the internal structure of your website to consider - the links you use between pages and the anchor text you use for those links. Linking is important, and a well structured and optimized architecture can provide convenience to your customers and insight for the search engines.

Once you have these aspects built in - once you've made these strong foundations to your "home" then you can go out and begin the "outdoors" processes like social marketing, link recruitment, viral marketing and any other activities that will bring visitors and attract attention to your nice, clean home.