Would also be interested in Web hosting and adding flash to our site...again, most cost effective.

As many backlinks as possible, PageRank (also known as PR) is mainly effected by the amount of other pages with a high PR backlinking you; also meta and keyword use is important. Creating sitemaps and submiting them to google and on your site allowing engine robots to crawl will drasicly increase your visability. Also know that newer domains are not as recognized as older ones, there is a period of time which your domain has to be active and updated and often crawled by search spiders.Good luck.

One way would be to look for web templates which are already SEO optimized. Usually sites that have these available for download also provide you with tips on where to place your content so that the search engines can effectively access and analyze your site. As far as web hosting goes, there are still surprisingly many sites that offer free web hosting without restrictions on what ads you place on your sites (one such place is AwardSpace.com).