No, SEO is just site optimization, not rank climbing

A lot of businesses don't bother and just go straight to AdWords. Basically, just make sure your website is easily navigable, ie;
-Don't use JS for links
-Provide descriptive ALT tags for image links
-Make use of link text, for example (imagianing bold text is a link);
"To read about roofing
click here" (would be daft)
"Click here for our
article on roofing" (would be better)
(basically, a lot of description without going over the top)
-W3C compliance is nice, but not essential. Just make sure there are no open tags.
-Make good use of the title, keywords, and description meta tags (yes, google does use them)
-Use keywords in page text, but don't go over the top (or you'll scare visitors away)
-If your website is not just a simple structure, use a sitemap that's linked from every page!
Theres more, but this should help you a bit (I've forgotten who asked now, but whoever you are

).