Anyone who knows me or who reads this blog regularly knows for a fact that I am not the smartest search engine expert around. In fact I pride myself on the fact that I learn from the best, SEObook.com, Seomoz.org etc. The only thing that helps me is my ability to adapt and learn new principals as they come out, and to have the guts and resources to institute them. I do like to think however that in the state of Utah I can hold my own when it comes to SEO. But as you get outside of little old Utah, you find some amazing experts in the field of search engine optimization.

I wanted to put together for you today my top ten list of SEO tasks to complete for your website. Maybe you are like me and you have a website or two, and don’t have the time, energy, or patience to put together a full scale SEO program. Maybe you are satisfied with doing the basics, and let your branding power do the rest. If this is the case you will find this list helpful. They are as follows:

1. Keyword use in content
2. Inbound Links
3. Anchor Text Of Inbound Link
4. Keyword Use In Page Title
5. Keyword in Meta Descriptions
6. Structured Page Navigation
7. Internal Linking
8. An XML Sitemap
9. Friendly URL’s
10. Keyword in H1 Tag

These basics have worked very well for me. These of course are in no particular order. It’s a top ten basic seo list so if you are going to be basic, you should at least do all 10 and nothing short. You can check out a post I wrote about a few weeks ago about the Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization – where you can get a free report from SEOmoz on the basic fundamentals. The fact is if you are a small business owner, just following the basics will get you head and shoulders above the competition. Most “webmasters” are still not following any of these basic principals. Most are outdated and still think that meta keywords justifies “search engine optimization”. What a crime.