Re: Where to 'place' the SEO profession?
SEO does require a lot of different skills but the site's architecture is #1 - that means a search-engine-friendly design. An SEO cannot do an effective job coming in after the fact and trying to make an "invisible" site visible (I mean invisible to search engines not site visitors).
So step #1: Get the site designed by someone who understand SEO so that it can be properly indexed.
Next comes the research (which is actually done before the site is built so that we can incorporate the keyword phrases into the proper places within the site content). This does not mean keyword stuffing - it means top-of-the-line copy writing that pleases both site visitors and search engines.
Step #2: research keyword phrases. You need to know how people are looking for your goods and services and you need to understand the best opportunities your site may have for high rankings. You need targeted but popular phrases.
Once the site is launched (or relaunched, as the case may be) then comes the submission and link-building process. This is the most tedious and least appreciated aspect of SEO (from a client's viewpoint you're not really doing anything because they can't see the effort spent in research - especially when often for non-conusmer sites the research can prove to be fruitless.)
Finally, you can also get involved in SEM (search engine marketing) and these days it's pretty much a requirement if you need targeted traffic immediately. This requires an entirely different set of skills to manage ad campaigns - good writing, good math to stay within the client's budget and good analytical skills to determine the best outcome for the client.
My company does all of the above, but we sometimes collaborate with a web designer if the client has a web designer that he prefers instead of doing all of the design work ourselves. Often, however, we do everything from soup to nuts.
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