SEO in a Nutshell?  Yes!

So you create a website. Say, for example, a free Land Rover classified ads site. Then you promote it. Make money by selling advertising. Simple eh? But there's tons of competition out there - kajillions of web pages. You will have to learn about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to be successful. And much much more. But really, having a web site is critical to any business, so even if the web site itself is not your primary business, you still need to learn about SEO and website marketing.
Fortunately, while many people write tons and tons about SEO, it is actually very simple. You need to do a little bit to optimize your pages for search engine spiders. And then you need to get backlinks.

Optimizing your page means:

1. Hopefully have your targeted keyword in your domain name.
2. Have your keyword in the title of your page.
3. Have your keyword in an H1 level header.
4. Add you keyword to the first and last sentences of your post.
5. Sprinkle your keyword thruout your text as it fits naturally.
6. Maybe add bold to your keyword in your text at one spot.
7. If you have an image, include your keyword in the name and alt tags for the image.
8. Use your keyword in the anchor text of any internal links to the page.

Ok, not too complicated. This work at home Dad can handle that. Now what about external SEO - which matters way more to getting ranked in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and thus getting free search engine traffic?

External SEO, and ultimately SEO period, amounts to getting proper backlinks. What is a proper backlink?

1. It has the keyword in the anchor text.
2. It comes from a site that ranks for keyword, or has authority for keyword - ie. a relevant site.
3. It comes from a reputable and preferably popular relevant site.
4. It is a one-way link with no return link from your site.
5. There are no or few other links on the page that the link to your work at home site is on.
6. It is not from a bad neighborhood site.

The more "proper" backlinks you can get to your web site, the better. Whoever gets the most anchored, "proper" backlinks wins!

There you go, SEO in a Nutshell.