You need not consult a search engine optimization firm to know your mistakes and learn from them. Everyone commits mistake - it's normal. What is not normal is when you allow them to recur over and over again.

Top ranking search engine position is something that every webmaster desires. However, it is hard to achieve. Those who have already get their website on the first page of major search engine results did their homework.

To reach your web search engine optimization goal, it takes a lot of efforts - starting from research, experimentation and trial and error. The top two mistakes that SEO enthusiasts commit are the following:

1. Choosing too competitive keywords.

Never choose keywords if you sense hundreds of millions of websites are using them. Use those that are less popular to compete better.

2. Using "not searchable" keywords.

You must come up with set of keywords that would yield decent amount of searches at least every week. You can do this by using keyword suggestion tool like overture, wordtracker and keywordiscovery.

Earlier I found something better. The name of the tool is digitalpoint. The latter compares the results of overture and wordtracker. Hence, it is like hitting 2 birds with one bullet. It's great. Try it too.