SEO resource suggestions...?

[sgirouard]

Here I am asking for help again. Only because everyone here seems to have a really big clue. Oh, and is also gracious, generous and helpful (

).
Innspiring is where I came across the title Don't Make Me Think, which was IMMENSELY helpful. Now, since I was so resourceful in coming up with that book, my web guy (aka DH) has put me in charge of SEO. The only problem is I tried to read about this, and as far as I'm concerned, everything I've read is written in Greek. Or possibly some other, less accessible language.
Any suggestions for a good resource where I can read about SEO in plain English (or even something simpler

)? An SEO for Dummies? Actually, I'd read something called that if someone said it was worth it.
Also, FWIW, our web host has some sort of automated SEO system. DH is going to show me how to log in and (supposedly), I can just start plugging in words and the "magic" SEO thingy will do the rest. Buu--uuhhhtt, I'd feel a lot better if I understood the basic premise. Even if I only understood a little.
Thanks for your time.

 

[Morticia]

I'm not sure how much you know (you may know more than you think) but this is a short run-thru of some terms, how the automated SEO component may work and how to do it yourself so you can see if you 'get it'.
You can also use Google AdWords to figure out what terms might be good for you to use. You pretend you're going to buy AdWords and put in what you think are good terms and it will return 'synonyms' for your terms and how often they were all used in searches.
I think one of the biggies is to focus your campaign on each page. So, if you have 5-10 website pages you can have each one of them focus on a slightly different message to show up in different searches.
I like my homepage to show up well when someone is searching specifically for a B&B in my town. They can wander around the site after that, but the homepage tells them they've arrived at the right place (or not).
If you have a restaurant list, that will draw a different cohort. Maybe they are only looking for a place to eat, but maybe they were also hoping to make a nice weekend out of it if they found a good place to eat. (And now they've found a place to stay, too.)
And here is a glossary.
Not sure how old this is, but there is info on what to write, why to write it and how to write it.

 

[sgirouard]

Thanks. Off to check it out.

 

[swirt]

I'd be very cautious of any automated SEO systems.
This is a place to get your feet wet and is specific to B&B's
http://www.inngenious.com/marketing-advice/optimize-page.htm
(disclaimer: I wrote it)

 

[briarrosebb]

I haven't read this recently but i'll point to its existence:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html
it's important to get google's perspective because you don't want penalties and they will tend to approach things from a cautionary standpoint. if you incur penalties and know about it that's usually a nightmare... usually you won't know about the penalties.
it's sobering reading their webmaster blogs where people complain about what has happened to them in the search engine results and have the experts dissecting the faux pas that brought it about.