There is a new article in USA Today that features five SEO tips straight from the horse’s mouth, or Google’s Matt Cutts. While his suggestions (start a blog, use social media, etc.) seemed a little basic to us (but then again, we are an established Chicago SEO company), they are great for small business owners or others who are just getting started on the web.

Although the article (and accompanying video) goes more in depth, Matt gave USA Today’s reporter five pieces of advice.

1. Spotlight Your Term on the Page - Basically, think about what terms you want your website to rank for (your keywords) and make sure they appear in prominent positions on your homepage.

2. Fill in Your Tags - The results pages returned by the search engines usually show a website’s title and description tags, so make sure those accurately reflect your site and keywords.

3. Get Other Sites to “Link” Back to You - The search engines love links, so the more high-quality inbound links your site has, the better.

4. Create a Blog and Post Often - The search engines also love recent updated websites, so posting fresh content on your blog is a great strategy (and it will help you get those valuable links).

5. Register for Free Tools - Google has lots of great tools available for webmasters, and of course, you should use our free SEO tool and SERP tracking tool.