If you where asked to give a tip to someone who had never attempted to Search engine optimize there site would you say? The first thing id say would probably be Decent content? then id branch off into other things like Backlinks, File names (Google-adsense-help.php) Etc.
Content is definitely the first thing, but I think it's hard to separate content from keywords. I'd say the minimum SEO for a newcomer to do would be: 1) Basic keyword research 2) Quality content relevant to the keyword 3) Basic page optimization for the keyword Jay
content should be unique but doesnot have to be original, i think. seo can be applied to any type content, and eventough you have optmized your site for search engine there is no 100% guarantee that the site will be successful in SERP