That's exactly my point. SEO is just a bunch of tips that I consider part of web design and site architecture 101. Plus, of course, the occasional voodoo ("black hat SEO": think Google bombing).

But, on the other hand, if it helps more and more websites become standards compliant, then it's overall a good thing. Eventually, if SEO maintains its rate of popularity increase, nearly all websites will be standards compliant, and SEO will implode.