Anyone that has read more then three words on my blog will know I am very interested in SEO techniques and the value or lack of value that each of them carry. When doing SEO work on any site, you should prioritize the tasks you need to complete and work on them in that order (yes, even if you hate link building).

There are two main types of SEO that are commonly referred to as onsite and offsite. Depending on how your site is set up, your plan may differ slightly from what I will outline here so remember this is just a basic blueprint and is in no way set in stone as the “how to do it” method for SEO.

The most typical means of increasing your “value” to the search engines will come in the following forms:

1. Creating quality content for your visitors that others will want to link to as well.
2. Build quality, relevant one way backlinks to your site.
3. On page SEO techniques to ensure efficient crawling of your site without presenting duplicate content to the crawlers.

These items may seem obvious to many but for those just beginning or for those who are not familiar with SEO techniques having an ordered list to work from will often times save time and prevent distraction. Way too many individuals waste too much time in the early stages of building your site trying to squeeze every last drop of PageRank “juice” from their pages that they neglect the first two steps. By sticking to the order show above you will be much more likely to develop a successful SEO plan for your site that you can continue over time, building on each previous step and limiting the amount task that you inadvertently repeat.

As I said earlier, this is not the end all be all “magic list” but it is a list that beginners can start from and have good results. Keep it simple, learn as you go and tackle more advanced SEO techniques after mastering the basics. Create quality, unique and relevant content, get quality one way backlinks, tweak your site structure, too simple. Set aside an hour a each day if you can to work on these tasks and you will see the return on your investment sooner than you think.