Remind me again, why do I care about SEO?

If SEO is not going to guarantee my page is on the front page of google search results why am I going through all this work?

Reason #1) All of the suggestions for improving your page ranking through SEO make your website more efficient, easier to navigate, cleaner, meaner, and a better experience for your readers. That's a good thing in my book.

Reason #2) SEO will influence your page ranking in a positive way. SEO by itself will not push your page rank to 5 or 6. But, it will keep you from shooting yourself in the foot and being relegated to the hell of page rank 0.

Reason #3) Even though SEO will not guarantee your page is on the front page of google search results, it will help. And anything that moves your website up the list in search results is a good thing.

Bottom line, it will help. It won't guarantee anything, but it will help. Remind yourself of this periodically. It might prevent you from stealing your kid's college fund in order to pay for the services of a flim-flam snake oil salesmen hocking guaranteed placement on google's front page.

Cost/Benefit. Everything is measured in cost versus potential benefit. Investing 1000 hours into some obscure aspect of SEO might not be worth the returned benefits. That time might have been better invested in promotions. Cost/Benefit. Don't forget that balance.