Just like love, SEO is a battlefield. A battlefield full of landmines. Newbies in the internet marketing field often walking onto the battlefield unaware that it’s a dangerous place, and often, they get blown up. God knows I’ve gotten blown up on occasion.

Avoiding SEO landmines is a matter of knowing what to look out for and what to avoid. The good news is that there are hundreds, if not thousands of SEO professionals out there who have made all the fatal online mistakes…and when we’re lucky, they share their war stories with us.

Yesterday Matt McGee shared some of the SEO lessons he has learned in his post SEO “Don’ts”: 20 Fatal Mistakes You Must Avoid to Succeed. The post addresses some of the most common mistakes, scams and oversights that lead to classic cases of SEO fatalities. Some of my favorites (and most common affiliate mistakes) are:

1. Don't reply to the SEO spam you get via e-mail.
6. Don't waste your time submitting your URL to search engines.
13. Don't ignore usability.
17. Don't plaster your link all over blog comments, guestbooks, etc.
18. Don't fret over keyword density.

Read the entire list here – it could save new marketers a lot of heartburn, and remind veterans of their classic SEO war stories.