I've been hearing this a lot as I work on a new project. Any particular recommendation of a SEO "cookbook" that can be learned in an hr or two? Is SEO a really

I've been hearing this a lot as I work on a new project. Any particular recommendation of a SEO "cookbook" that can be learned in an hr or two? Is SEO a really vast field? I am trying to focus on basic keyword insertion and meta tags as long as they make sense to the work I am doing. A bit wary of things I may be missing.