Is it possible to teach yourself SEO?

Hello all! I am brand new to SEO. I am wondering if it is possible to teach myself how to do SEO for a small business (service) website? I still need to create a website, looking into Wordpress for this. I was curious how difficult is it to learn and implement Google SEO in order to bring my page to the front of google search in my area? Thank you in advance for those who take the time to respond!