In order to drive consistent traffic to your site, it is important to make sure it receives a high ranking on the major search engines. There are many techniques that can be used to increase your ranking, some which are very effective, and many more which are not. This article will help you avoid some of the common pitfalls in SEO marketing.

The most important thing to do is make sure your content has value to your potential customer. An old tool was to stuff a web page full of meaningless keywords, just to increase rankings. Search engine robots have gotten smart to this technique, and this keyword-stuffing can now get your page a lower ranking, or even deindexed completely. Obviously this is not what you want, so make the effort to get unique, meaningful content for your site. In the end, not only will this get you a higher search engine ranking, but your customers will enjoy your site more.

Another common pitfall is to pay people specifically to link your page or drive traffic to your site. So called "link farms"� will do nothing for your ranking as the search engines will simply mark these links as invalid. Paying for traffic is a waste of money for most people, as profiting through these services is a whole other profession with its own unique rules and challenges. The people who click are being paid very small amounts to do so, and are bombarded by so much advertising that it is extremely difficult to get your message through.

Another group you should be cautious to pay for services are "SEO experts."� The internet is full of scammers, and you need to make sure that anyone you pay for work like this is legitimate. Make sure you check their references, and take a look at their previous client list to see how well their work has actually succeeded. SEO is a difficult task, and getting help from someone with experience is not a bad idea, but you definitely need to be sure you will be getting what you pay for.

Also important is to make sure your site is not seen as spam by potential users, as well as the search engine robots. Many people use a spam technique to try and create links back to their web page by entering it every forum or free link posting they can find. It is a good idea to use forums to promote your site, but you need to make sure the forum's terms allows for links in your signature, and it is better if you contribute something meaningful to the discussion. This will take quite a bit more effort, but SEO has becoming more about using meaningful content to promote your site and your keywords, and less about the sheer number of keywords and links you obtain.

Also important is to make sure your site is not seen as spam by potential users, as well as the search engine robots. Many people use a spam technique to try and create links back to their web page by entering it every forum or free link posting they can find. It is a good idea to use forums to promote your site, but you need to make sure the forum's terms allows for links in your signature, and it is better if you contribute something meaningful to the discussion. This will take quite a bit more effort, but SEO has becoming more about using meaningful content to promote your site and your keywords, and less about the sheer number of keywords and links you obtain.