SEO Doesn't mean spamming

I've alredy mentioned that SEO should look at what search engines are trying to achieve, so what else should we consider?

Well writing good code for a start. Inaccessible sites are going to be difficult not only for those with accessibility problems but also for search engines. If your code uses hundreds of nested tables, like some 'website creation tools', then it will be very difficult for the search engines to follow.

So write neat code. Use plenty of CSS and put the CSS style sheets into stand-alone files that the search engines can ignore - this benefits you as the file sizes are smaller. Test what happens when you load a page with the style sheets missing - now you are seeing the site more like the search engines.

And although you should look at what techniques will help you rank higher, don't do too much. Writing a meaningful page that users will get information from will eventually attract the search engines. A page that suddenly appears and is well optimised, or even a site that does that, could be flagged as suspicious to the search engines and never rank well.

Think of the future. Sites that provide what search engines want whilst being optimised well have a far greater long term future than those that spam in some way to fight against what the search engines are doing.