I've been asked to find out about SEO and getting links. We are apparently in a contract with a firm who have made changes to our site code, changes to the text on the site, and registered us with a list of directories. I've had no involvement with this until now.
They've told us to get links, and to add articles to our site.
I believe my boss expected all this to be included and it wasn't so now it's on me to know enough to do this and not wreck our ranking.
I've googled and think I know what to do with articles, which is simplistically just adding diverse content with each article focussing on a keyword, and create lots of them, right? Some sites talk about percentage of keywords, does this really matter?
How do I get links though? If I start mailing sites asking for a link isn't that just going to be considered spam? Do we buy them? If so, where?
As you can tell I'm completely new at this. So many sites contradict each other, or promise impossible magic if you buy a product. Is there a reasonable unbiased guide out there? I have some tech IT background but am only a user as far as the web goes.
Sorry for the very basic questions. Thanks.
Update
I was concentrating on the wrong question - I'd have been better knowing how best to proceed from here, hence the daft questions on how to build links etc. Is there anything I need to watch out for when starting out with link building or writing articles? ie damage our ranking?