1) Learn competitor analysis first:
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...ete-noobz-guide-competitor-link-research.html
2) Study on page SEO second:
Good site design.
Quick site speed.
Optimize images.
Optimize titles for keyword.
Optimize meta descriptions.
Optimize image names, alternate descriptions.
Optimize headings, sub headings, etc.
Optimize article with your keywords and related keywords.
Mobile optimize, make sure your responsive (columns collapse for smaller devices, etc).
Interlink all your pages with as many relevant pages as possible.
3) Study off page SEO third:
Guest posts
PBN links
Web 2.0
Press releases
Articles
Social media
Directories
PDF sharing sites
Video sites
Forums
Blog comments
Link bait
Learn anchor text lingo & ratios
Additional details:
Pick extremely low competition niches first. You're a noob so you have to pick battles you can win. Then move up from there as you get more experienced, more confident and refine your process.
Don't just use backlinks for ranking. Like all my YT videos. I don't give a shit about having those links but I have them cause the videos do a great job preselling and driving traffic. They are long tails, rank in G easily, people find them, see my site and click.
Last and most important... content.
Content is in fact "king". And I'm not speaking about the quality of content. Yes, that's important but can be debated forever.
What can't be debated is the following...
SEO is an engine, content is the GASOLINE. The single biggest problem, sticking point, pain in the ass, border and boundary that all marketers face is acquiring lots of unique content.
Because fundamentally speaking, SEO is really just "data input". You input data / content here, get a backlink. Input data somewhere else, get a backlink. If you run out of data / content, you run out of gas, the engine stops.
All marketers have their own ways of doing content. Some type. Some spin. Some use Dragon Naturally Speaking to transcribe. Others use clever ways to access databases where content is "private". Say like a college, library or research database. Or a database that is taken down from Google. Situations where lots of content is not indexed in Google. So some marketers will steal it and use it on their tier 1's and 2's. Others may pay writers to rewrite PLR articles for $1 - 1000 words.
Because of this, I'd suggest you find ways to get content done as efficiently as possible. Try not to take short cuts on your money site. But definitely try to think outside the box. Rent old library books if you need then just use The Dragon to transcribe them on your tier 1's.
1 last tip. Use footprints in Google to search BHW. You can put into Google - site:blackhatworld.com how to build pbn .... or any other variation to do your research and learn more about each topic I listed.
Good luck.
-BB