Google has really altered the Search Engine Optimization landscape in the past few years. Companies that went against Google's guidelines were either banned from the search results entirely or their products and services were moved way down search results into obscurity. This video from Rand Fishkin at MOZ does a really good job of highlighting current SEO strategies (or perhaps better, Search Engine Marketing strategies). Don't start the video and leave thinking you already know this stuff, he ...

Google released an update called Hummingbird in September of 2013. The update shifted the focus of SEO away from direct match phrases towards rich topical discussions. I suspect this was in part due to the shift in search volume to phones, and more specifically, Google's ability to search from voice requests. Google now understands parts of speech and that one question may relate to a previous question. As an example someone might search "where is the Eiffel tower" and then follow with "how tall...

I was in a discussion with a client recently who was impressed by a competitor's website. It was graphically stark and almost completely devoid of text. While it was attractive, I am betting the site's traffic volume of search is extremely low. There was a time when we could make a page rank  just by the strength of information pointing to it, but that is no longer the case. Your pages must have good clear content to be found in the search results.