Small business owners don’t necessarily need to be SEO experts, but you should have a firm grasp on the basics – even if only to direct a web designer.

The search engine world changes pretty frequently, but not as much as SEO folks would like you to believe. In fact, you will waste a lot of time and energy trying to keep up with folks that want you to think there are new ways to game the search engines. Here’s my advice: Bookmark these sites, visit them, read the books the site authors have written and recommended and then make sure you take a refresher course every 6 months or so.