Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the science of search as it relates to marketing on the web. It is mostly technical in nature, combining programming with business, persuasion, sales, and a love for competitive puzzle solving into a written form capable of maintaining desired revenue goals while achieving high rankings in the organic sections of search engine results pages. It is not just technical, nor copywriting, nor links, nor just search engine submission, but an intricate blend of over a hundred variables into the fabric of a website. It is difficult to accomplish without a formal proven methodology and strong proprietary tools.

WebTrends and Google Analytics

keywords in url, keyword, domain name, header, description meta tag, keyword meta tag.

Very important these days on a page/content development angle as well as understanding valuations of links (internal and back links). Block level anaysis is in all of the big 3. A must for a core understanding

Vision-based Page Segmentation - The image to the right illustrates the basic concept behind VIPS. Nearly every page on the internet has the same basic structure to it. The top table row <tr></tr> is generally always the page header, which contains the website's logo and sometimes a site menu. etc

Exactly where on a page a link appears in the <table> structure, can determine the real value of that link.

It is just common sense, if you follow the habits of webmasters from around the world, that the page body text carries the most important information on the webpage. And, it makes sense that any tables that may be imbedded in the page body region of the webpage might just be additional advertising. Your website is the very best testimonial that you can look at to understand the power of the VIPS algorithm.

Affiliates, internal links, external links, reciprocal links, directory links.

PageRank is a live calculation that goes far beyond a 1-10 scale. It's value in scoring has been consistently devalued since 2002-3.

TBPR is a google toolbar that only gets updated every 3 months or so and does not truly reflect PR

Actually, Google updates the "real" page rank continually - and it impacts the algorithm long before an update occurs for toolbar Page Rank.

The amount of page rank voted to any given link also depends on how many total links are on the linking page. Plus, Google can decide that certain pages should not transfer any Page Rank at all. So predicting what the toolbar will tell you in the future involves pretty much guesswork.

Latent semantic indexing helps search engines to find out what a web page is all about. It basically means you shouldn't focus on a single keyword when optimizing your web pages and when getting links.
The web pages on your web site should be related and focus mainly on a special topic while using different words that describe the topic. Use variations of your keyword and synonyms. That makes it easier for search engines to determine the topic of your site.

An information retrieval system that uses phrases to index, search, rank, and describe documents on the web. This system would look at the way those phrases were used across the web to decide if they were “valid” or “good” phrases. In addition to considering if their use on all webpages was significant statistically by how frequently they were used, it would also look at how those phrases might have been related to each other - certain phrases tend to be mentioned in the same documents as other phrases.

Used not only in onpage factors but off page as well for creating effective link text strategies. Google even used it for Spam detection (potentially) these days. There is a great deal of information of relevance contained in here.

In Google Lore - what are 'Hilltop' Florida' and 'Big Daddy'? Algo update

Keyword mining – find loads of keywords, most competitive, etc