Web Designers: Can you recommend a good resource on Search Engine Optimization?

I’m looking to get more traffic (on my website) to promote my web design endeavors. I know back in the day we used “meta-keywords,” but those have fallen out of favor. So, this is tricky. One book I saw was 500 pages; another one: 700 pages! Holy crap… can it really be that complicated?! I’d just like to know how it works, and increase my ranking on Google and such. (I’m not looking to be a superstar, but it would be nice, if even in my local area, I popped up.) So, if there are any books you’d recommend, or videos and the like, please suggest!
Keeping it in “social,” in case someone wants to get verbose, which would be neat