You have to know that the technique of doing SEO for Google have completely changed, you have to think of user point of views first. So if you are creating website then make sure that your site is user friendly (society friendly) and forget old methods of promotion and link building! Link building still works but you have to build it slowly and naturally and it is not possible to build natural links yourself, it is built by the community, what you can do is you can spread quality content for building brand name and links as well.
Yessir, Yasir...You pretty much nailed it. There are actually more than what you have written in your answer, but it is a good start for the newbie.