98% of all visits to websites are initiated through the search engines.

Optimizing your website makes it massively more likely for the search engines to rank you.

The higher your ranking, the more likely people are to find you.

It's difficult to get to page 1 immediately if your website is under 3 months old.

It takes at least 2 to 3 months for good results to appear.

If your site is already established it may be possible to move up to page 1 or 2 within 1 month

Search engines like established websites not 'fly by night' sites.

Original content is the first and most important step for website success.

Illegitimate or 'black hat' methods set you up for failure. You can't trick the search engines!

Link farming also area really bad for your business! Search engines don't like them and can easily detect it - with disastrous consequences.

Don't trust SEO companies guaranteeing 1st position for your websites in the search engines. Because SEO is an ever changing field, no SEO company can promise you a certain position in any of the search engines.

Don't trust SEO companies hyping extremely low prices. Search Engine Optimization is a long term process consuming ample amount of time and money to comprehend its important aspects.

An important misconception about SEO is that it can automatically improve a site's ranking within the search engines. Without constantly updating your site in compliance with the ongoing changes in the search engines industry and search engine algorithm changes, you cannot achieve the desired target.

Keep in mind that SEO is critically important to your business growth and no deceptive methods should be adopted to trick the search engines. The use of hidden text, gateways and re-direction techniques are dated and deceptive ways to deceive the search engines. This will eventually hurt your search engine listings.

You should avoid linking with a site that is penalized by the engines or following questionable SEO practices.