This seems to be very much a case of her story, his story, and the truth. In my opinion the truth seems to be: NO – there are no Search Engine Optimization secrets. This does not mean to say that SEO is not real – it simply means that there is no such a thing as a silver bullet that will blast your site to the number one ranking spot on Google.
More and more web sites are picking up on this. One site that specializes in optimizing Small Business Websites have a Do-It-Yourself SEO section. Another site – SpiderHugs – tells you what search engine spiders are looking for and what you, as the site owner or developer, can do to make life easier for the search engine spiders.
SEO will remain a specialty field as long as Google has money to spend on improving their search results – and this still has a long way to go. Staying abreast of Search Engine development, changes in browser technology, combined with the maturing “search population”,  is a full time job.
Find a Search Engine Optimization Consultant whom you can trust and grant your website a deserved check-up and overhaul from time to time – the results should please you endlessly. If not, find a different search engine optimization consultant.