With all this talk of influencing search engines, you might think that SEO is all about manipulating search engines into giving your web pages a bit more importance than they really deserve.
That's just not true!
You read that right. There's absolutely no sure-fire way of tricking search engines into favoring your web pages over those of others. Therefore, SEO is not some clever scheme to trick search engines or an insidious exploit of their deeply guarded secrets to your advantage. There are no magic tricks, no secrets, and no silver bullets.
Note
There's no dearth of shady outfits which lead you into believing that they can do something special to make your site appear at the top of all search results in exchange for a small fortune, usually. In fact, there's a budding cottage industry built around SEO that's rivalled only by the mature cottage industry for preparing your kid to get into an Ivy League college. Unfortunately, they are both founded on myths, old wives' tales, and urban legends. And just for the record, getting your kid in to an Ivy League college might actually be easier.
Before you let a SEO service separate you from your money, consider this question: if every website-owner in your line of business pays a few bucks to monitor and improve his/her site's search-result positioning, whose site will actually show up at the top? You be the judge.