SEO : A Checklist of what not to do!

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a moving target. There's a 1000 people out there telling you what you SHOULD do in order to improve your rankings, and traffic. Whose advice you follow is confusing, and at times mind numbing. But after searching over 50 sites, here is a very good list of the basic things you should NOT be doing, when you optimize your site for search engines. For those of you who entrust your web site to others, you can pass this checklist on to your webmaster as a directive of things you don't want happening with your site. If you want a good list of safe SEO practices purchase the checklist at Webwildcatting.com

This list below will keep you in good graces with our Search Engine friends:

* Stick to known search engine guidelines
* Target only quality search terms predetermined and approved with the client
* Do not use hidden text or hyperlinks on optimized pages
* Do not duplicate page content on or off the site in order to game the search engine results
* Do not use page redirecting or cloaking as a means to provide the visitor a different page than the search engine sees
* Do not engage in any page-jacking or content theft techniques
* Do not create new pages using machine generated techniques
* Make sure all pages are produced and edited by a real person
* Do not resort to any link spamming techniques designed to artificially inflate link popularity
* Use only high quality on-subject links from industry related websites
* Be constantly improving the visibility and usability of your website
* Stay on top of current effective optimization and marketing practices
* Do not use tactics that are known to be useless and/or harmful to a website's marketing efforts
* Do not employ unnatural language or keyword stuffing techniques that in any way devalue the user experience
* Do not let your external webmaster maintain ownership of any aspect of the on or off-page elements created or updated as part of the marketing campaign, including content, domain names, etc.