I love reading all of the search engine optimization tips that mean almost nothing today -- they may have worked in the past, but hardly matter at all now -- junk like "keywords in your alt tags", "H2 tags", "repeat your keyword 46 times", etc.  None of that crap works anymore, but people still talk about it like it's some kind of big secret.

There are only three things you should focus on - LINKS, CONTENT, and VALIDATION. 

Make sure your code validates and is clean, produce content on a daily basis, and get as many links into your sites as you can.  The first two are simple, and can be done by anyone, but getting quality links from powerful pages is exponentially more difficult and is where most websites fail.  Some people spend hour after hour doing link exchanges, spamming guestbooks, spamming blogs, etc.  Some people build gigantic networks of sites on various IP blocks and then link them together.  Some people write dozens of articles a week and then syndicate them.  All of these methods work, but they also take a lot of time and effort.

One of the easiest ways to get quality links is to pay for them -- think of it as an advertising cost with tremendous benefits. Go get yourself some Text Link Ads.