SEO is not too complicated ..it's us who make it difficult ...the problem is that recen Google update need everything in balance(diversity) ...breaking one rule ..can damage your whole link building plan ...as a SEO expert ...i have seen many business owner or Webmaster ..jump for first page ranking without doing first step...Here is two rule you must follow unless you don't want to invest big buck or brand name .... Although determine ranking of site Google consider approx 200 things but significantly consider 4 to 5 thing 90% ..Your first step start from here ....never ever skip it ...do it properly and you'll see your way will be smooth 1))First step with keyword research- Targeting wrong keyword is just like hitting the wall...Every keyword has different competition so is time & money needed to rank ...Suppose you wanted to rank one keyword for which already PR5 , PR6 site spotted on first page ...Think what you can do ... 2))On page optimization -On page optimization is very important ..without proper on page optimization you can not get expected ranking no mater how much link building you have done...Suppose you wanted your site to be ranked for a particular keyword and that keyword is not injected in your site content OR injected in spam way ..in both cases you'll lost... So be careful, if you're not good at Keyword research and onPage optimization ..It would always be professional approach to hire expert ... If you do these both correctly , 50% SEO is done