Yes, this is the first question which comes into the mind of any SEO newbie. He does lot of research and experiments to get the top position in google search with the target keywords. But there is lot of confusion in the market as no SEO expert knows what the google algorithms are and every SEO expert does lot of thing to find the relevant answers for their questions. There is nothing wrong into it as it is a continuous process and searches are getting more and more specific and thus it is obvious that the search result should also be relevant to maintain the search engine relevancy. And this is great as the internet is getting more and more mature, things will also get more accurate shapes and search engines will also become smarter. If we see the search engine trend from the beginning it is indicating the same what I am saying.
So what should a search engine optimization expert can do to rank his website higher in the market? He need to do lot of things. He need to put effort with the structure of the website, with mobile first thing in mind he need to write the syntaxes which are mobile friendly. He should abandon all the tags that get depreciated. He must ask his customers to provide content which is engaging. He must see that the bounce rate should not be more than 70%. If it is more than seventy percent he need to put effort to bring it down. He should find the right keywords and use the right and relevant content which matches with the keywords.
As we all know the SEO is a continuous process and you need to do it regularly to rank higher your website and then maintain the position once you attain that.