Macro photography is when you take a picture of an emphasis up close. When you focus on an emphasis, the background becomes blurry and makes the emphasis pop out even more. It's good to use Macro in photography, but you shouldn't use it all the time.
The Rule of Thirds is basically where you divide your camera screen into a 3X3(tic tac toe) grid. Where the lines of the grid intersect, that is where you set your emphasis, but do not set it in the center of the camera screen.