I'm lucky to have people who know what they are doing do it for me.

There is much more to real SEO then most anyone knows(even IT people). Finding those people who know their shit is hard to do, and when you do, it's $$. But there are a lot of good tips out there, and the Google stuff you are referencing is a good start. I've never cross linked, but I know it works/helps. Not sure about having Google ads on the site, but I don't do that either.