Last week I pointed you to Matt McGee’s article about SEO don’ts in a post titled 20 SEO Landmines that Could Leave You All Blowed Up. This week, Matt returns with a list of 21 dos for search engine optimization.

Matt’s list covers various aspects of SEO, from the self-education side of things all the way to internal linking an URL structure. If you’re new to SEO or you are a veteran looking to make sure you have crossed your T’s and dotted your I’s, this is a worthwhile read.

If there is one thing that really stands out to me in this list its #6 -

Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of the results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.

This point is a reminder that the best way to get and keep rankings is to align your goals with those of the search engines. Search engines want their search results to be the best in the world. They want the ten most relevant sites in the world to show up on their first page. By creating the best site possible, you have a much better chance of ranking well and staying there than if you set out to outsmart the algorithm.

I think Seth Godin said it best in his post Building 43, when he is talking about web site optimization and the Google engineers who work in the super-secret Building 43 on the Google campus:

Betting against Building 43 doesn’t seem nearly as smart as betting on them.

So what’s your SEO strategy? Are you betting on yourself, betting on Building 43, or betting on both?