Read a LOT. If you want to learn SEO, you’re going to have to start learning the basics first, on sites like this one, SEOMOZ.org and SEObook.com. You should also read the blogs of major SEO players, like Will Critchlow, Tom Critchlow and Michael Graywolf.
Also, take a look at two print books: Marketing in the Age of Google, by Vanessa Fox, and The Art of SEO, by several authors.
That’ll get you to, oh, level 5.
To get to level 10, you’ll need to learn some deeper stuff in the world of search:
- How the original PageRank formula works.
- Natural language processing
- Information recovery and search
- How crawlers work
I also strongly recommend learning at least one scripting language, preferably Python or Ruby. Learn to write your own web crawler. It’s a great exercise that will teach volumes about what search engines really need and want.
Hope this helps,
Ian