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owl
My previous deck I did nothing when I built it (pressure treated and nothing buried), and it was fine for the 5 years I lived there with a clean and a deck protect application once a year. No signs of it even starting to go bad in that time.
For the most recent one I went a bit overboard. All timber was bought pressure treated. Posts were soaked overnight in wood preserver and I used post-savers when concreting them in. I painted the tops liberally in wood preserver once I cut them to size. Frame was also liberally painted in wood preserver. Deck itself was painted in deck protect straight away and has just had it's first annual re-coat fairly recently.
If you need to focus on somewhere think about where water might sit or which areas are more exposed to the elements. Another thing that will shorten the lifespan is putting it together under strain. If some bits don't quite fit and you force them in place, those will be under stress constantly and will likely be where it fails.