Everybody is jumping on the Search engine optimization bandwagon these days. With the cost of pay per click advertising going through the roof as the competition intensifies, many corporations are looking at Organic search as a way to diversify and reduce their overall cost per action. But the key to success in the SEO world is picking your battles. You can’t optimize for everything, which is why you should focus on the most important ranking factors first before trying anything unconventional.

By focusing on the most important factors first you can make sure that you get the biggest bang for your efforts:

Keyword Use in Title Tag: title tags are the single most important ranking factor. The first things that search engine notice about your pages are the titles. It’s only fair to assume that your page title will reveal what your page is about. You should always try to start your title with your most important keyword phrase. A lot of companies start their page titles with their brand names, but you will usually get the best result by ending your titles with your brand name.
Anchor Text of Inbound Link: getting links from other authority sites in your market is very important towards getting to the top of the search-engines. By asking your linking partners to link to you with your keyword phrases in the anchor text, you can make sure that you rank for those keyword phrases.
Link Weight: the more related incoming links you acquire for your pages, the better off you are. It’s true that you still benefit from links from non-related pages, but quality links from within your niche can help your rankings tremendously.
Age of your site: the sooner you register your domain and start optimizing it for search-engines, the better off you’ll be. There are instances that new sites have managed to rank well on Google, but it is often better to register sites early in the process and start optimizing them as soon as possible.
Keywords in content: you should not forget to use keywords in your content. By using your keyword phrases in your content, you can let engines know what keywords matter the most on your pages. Watch your keyword density. The max keyword density you should go for is 3-5%. You should also use your keywords in your header tags and bold tags to emphasize their importance.

Now nobody claims that these techniques can get you to the top of search engines. But if everyone else is doing them, you would put yourself in a huge competitive disadvantage by ignoring them.