I have a website that is only very small ( 4 pages ) and there isn't that much text on each page so I suppose SEO wouldn't be very effective with this website.
What other alternatives do I have? What is the most effective thing you have ever done to your website?

Create links and posts in forums and blogs. Submit your site to directories. Make it SEO friendly

i guess there is a very direct one
that's word of mouth

Post good informative articles in high traffic article directories like EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, ArticleBase.com and ArticleCity.com etc. to increase traffic.

I totally agree with the posts above. Backlinks, article posts, and especially press releases. You need to saturate any relative site you can with your website. It also wouldn't hurt to add some content to your site... It won't take long and i think it would help you alot.

In your case you may want to use media outside the Internet like a magazine ad or a radio commercial. Get yout URL out in as many different ways as you can. Put your website address on your business cards, letterheads, envelopes... If you want local attention don't be shy to post message on bulletin boards, in flyers etc. Get networking too, let everyone you run across know about your site and its web address.

Not true. An adequate number of targeted text links from other domains will allow you to gain rankings. Just make sure that those terms are present in your "title" and visible on the page itself. Also the more relevant the site that links to your site is, the more "link juice" will be transferred for ranking purposes.

Submitting your website to social bookmark website is another way to get traffic and backlink

Yes , traffic can be very good and so can your bottom line if you can reach your niche. The links aren't very strong though.

i would go for social bookmarking,article submission and facebook groups advertising and twitter.. these are my best methods.