The Four Most Important Elements of SEO

1. Submit your URL and Sitemap to all the main Search Engines. This should be the first thing you do. Sometimes it takes days if not weeks for a URL to show up on some search engines. Google is usually pretty quick (within a 3-7 days). Also, It's a solid practice to submit your sitmap to at least Google. This will enable the search engine to quickly navigate and evaluate your websites content. Without a sitemap your website will surely fail in the rankings.
   
   
2. Research the Websites that are Ranking in top 10 for your Prospective Keywords. Only research the Organic Search Listings (not the sponsored links). Find out how many times they used those keywords in their Title, Meta Tags, and in the Body. Once you gather this information try to implement those keywords as many times as your competitors do in the same parts of your website. Be careful with the Meta Tags. Search engines don't like too many words stuffed in your keyword meta tags. This worked back in the day, but in 2010 it will hurt your rankings. Try to have no more than 10 keyword meta tags.
   
   
3. Make sure you have Solid Content. Seach engines don't look at how pretty or flashy your site is. They search for relevant keywords within the content on your website. You must be able to write content that not only makes sense to the reader, but also has a sufficient number of keywords within it to be competitive in the search engine rankings. Creating a website with full and well written content is very challenging, however it is well worth the work.
   
   
4. Backlinks are the most important SEO element. Ranking on a search engine is a lot like a popularity contest. The search engines are not only searching for the keywords, they are also searching for links that point back to your website. For the best results these links must come from websites that also have relative content to what's on your website. For example, if you offer Printing Services than you should not have a backlink from a website that sells Flowers. When you have a relative link pointing back to your website the search engine sees that as another site that virtually voting for your site instead of another. Generate as many relative backlinks as possible and your rankings will steadily move toward the top.