There a lot of great resources out there. I recommend taking a look at SEOmoz.org. They have a great beginners guide. Also, Google has a guide to SEO as well which has some good tidbits and takeaways.
After you have read those, what I would do, is study your vertical. Google has, and is, becoming more and more diverse in the type of content it picks to display in the SERPs. This all, for the most part, is determined by search intent (what is the searcher looking for based on the keywords entered).
Your vertical is revolves around information and research. Google has made some relatively new changes to help authors brand themselves online. I would look into incorporating these tags.
Secondly, research your competitors and the sites that are ranking. What content is showing up. Are there patterns. I did a quick search and I got a lot of video search results. Can you compete against those?
Lastly, the web was built on links. You need to cultivate relationships online and translate these into links that are earned. There are lot of ways to do this. However, the right way to do it is hard and time consuming, but it pays off big time.
After you have read those, what I would do, is study your vertical. Google has, and is, becoming more and more diverse in the type of content it picks to display in the SERPs. This all, for the most part, is determined by search intent (what is the searcher looking for based on the keywords entered).
Your vertical is revolves around information and research. Google has made some relatively new changes to help authors brand themselves online. I would look into incorporating these tags.
Secondly, research your competitors and the sites that are ranking. What content is showing up. Are there patterns. I did a quick search and I got a lot of video search results. Can you compete against those?
Lastly, the web was built on links. You need to cultivate relationships online and translate these into links that are earned. There are lot of ways to do this. However, the right way to do it is hard and time consuming, but it pays off big time.
/2cents