Considerations

• Search Engines pick content that is relevant and new. Everytime your site content is viewed by the search engines they will be looking for new content, and relevancy. Using the words 'Web Designer' on the home page and then not having any other key words such as developer, consultant, graphic designer and programmer throughout the site would send alarm bells to the search engines. So good quality, well thought out content must be absolutely key.
• Links to other sites are useful but only if they are relevant. If you have lots of links that are not relevant your site could be seen as a link farm. The best links are those that occur naturally by getting an article or content on a high ranking site. This way the link is one way and towards your site which is valued highly and far more beneficial than 100's of 2 way links.
• Social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Bebo etc), blogs, and forums are a fantastic way of generating free traffic by adding your website link.
• It can take up to 9 months until search engines classify your site which is why pay per click is so popular. You have to be extremely careful when using and ensure you set a maximum financial limit per day otherwise your bill could be a nasty shock.
• To understand how popular your search words are you can type into a search engine and see how many site links are returned. Getting to page 1 with a popular keyword is financially demanding.
• It must not be forgotten that SEO is all about making your site visible. If you do not have the finances to compete then try other routes. You can use viral email to generate interest and if read and passed on then you can accumulate alot of site clicks which the search engines will obviously love as it means your site is well viewed.