Html knowledge is advisable
Important points:
Title tag is v. important use keywords here
Page filename
Keywords in h1 tags and bold scattered on the page, unique topic per page, don't dilute.
Lots of back links
Don't submit to search engines, let them find you.
Alt tags, use them widely
mode rewrite to change "?" queries to straight forward urls (ya know what I mean huh!?)
once you're ranked, and it can take weeks. DON'T change anything!
Also good, let people optimise the web site hosting for you!
HTH