Optimizing my website for search engines

I've decided to tackle a less "exact" field of the interwebs and the world of computers - Search Engine Optimization (SEO). When I say less "exact", I mean it's less of a science than an art. There are no exact predictions that can be made.

So far, I'm currently still in the designing stage of my website (A website explaining how to program and use various software) but I am also beginning to plan how I'm going to optimize it for search engines such as Google. This is proving to be a challenging thought process, given that I'm used to a certain way of working with programming/computers - this way of working is in conflict with how SEO works.

Wish me luck.