SEO has been around about as long as search engines have. It makes sense. Who doesn't love free publicity? I fell into it back in 1999, becoming what would eventually be known as an "accidental" SEO specialist (someone who got great rankings, without knowing exactly why, who took the time to figure it out.) Of course, times have changed and search engines are a lot less forgiving than they used to be and there are plenty of experts willing to share their knowledge.

Today there are a lot of resources out there to assist in your SEO efforts. But there's a lot more competition too so it isn't any easier than it was ten years ago. In fact, it's harder than ever without the right information. You see, unfortunately for each piece of great optimization advice there are dozens of obsolete tactics and just plain bad information floating around.

If you really want to succeed in your search engine optimization campaign you only need to focus on three simple facts...

1.) You are not competing against search engines or even Web sites. You are competing against individual Web pages. Too many people focus on trying to beat search engines or entire Websites. Don't bother. You never win that way. Focus on beating the competing Web pages. Once you hear it, its common sense but of 250 pre-optimization client interviews I've performed over that past decade, 93% state they need to "beat the search engines."

2.) Get training from professionals whenever possible. Years ago this typically meant paying $1,500 for a weekend crash course or spending weeks buried in books full of big words and complicated theories. There are other alternatives available today like countless Websites, blogs and user groups, which are great avenues. If you're looking for the full SEO training experience without the cost or hassle of going to a seminar, consider taking a computer based training course (CBT.) SEOcbt.com offers free SEO training courses developed by experts that teach seminars and still rack up top search engine placements of their own. They recently released "Google Domination", a free training course available at http://www.SEOcbt.com.

3.) Do the actual optimization work by hand and automate the rest. By "actual optimization work" I mean developing content and making final decisions regarding keywords. Don't trust this to software. This should always be done manually. Tasks like finding link partners, harvesting contact information and checking your search engine positions, however can easily be done with good software (and should be). And you're in luck because SEO software is the most affordable it's ever been, depending on your needs.

I started with Web Position (http://www.WebPosition.com) and loved it for its great position reporting. Unfortunately it doesn't handle linking, which accounts for about 75% of your Google success so I went shopping for a new tool. On advice from a well respected SEO seminar coach I bought SEO Elite (http://www.SEOeliteWeb.com) and never looked back. It does all the position reporting I need and helps me get an average of 200 new links per month which keeps my sites on top of Google.

Just focus on these three simple things and your SEO efforts will pay off better than you thought possible. Best of luck!