Okay, since you ask...
Like the movie - opinions vary
However, some things even Google won't dispute.
Content is king. Good content works wonders with search engines. Make the domain name match what you do, match the keyword meta-tag(s), build the keywords into the content. Make sure it reads sensibly (makes sense). Google increasingly looks for images, audio and video. If you use any, link text (i.e. use ALT tags and titles with images). Flash looks great but to a robot it's a black hole - it doesn't index unless you wrap some text to it. That's called 'on-page' SEO.
Don't forget the 'off-page' SEO - it's even more important. Use free-ad sites like Gumtree and Craigslist, post ads, use the same keywords/phrases as your web-site. Test the free-ad sites for speed of indexing. Birmingham Gumtree indexes very quickly in Google at the moment (might change next week!) - place the ad(s) on the faster indexer. Write the ad to match your landing page (usually the home page). Ignore people selling back-links - they're usually BS and there's a suspicion that search engines do some kind of cross-reference i.e. your site may go down if the links you chose are bad!
Use social networking like Facebook. Set up a business page - it's free. Look for sites that allow you to post articles with links. Test sites to find out if they index quickly - actually this one does
Here's a test (if the mods will let me get away with it) - Visit Chamonix, Flims and Masnou, check
here for more information. I'll likely get away with that because the site is personal, not commercial and it's not dodgy (no porn, sorry!).
SEO changes constantly so you have to keep watching the trends. Keywords are harder to index for than phrases due to the competition. ANYONE can get you on top slot on Google - but for what you want them to type in??? Type in 'computermedics' - one of mine - top slot, right? Is it a great site? No, it's crap! Top slot though
I'm happy to make suggestions for your site - and I am NOT touting for business. That way I can choose to tell ya to fook off
