What a great question. I spend much of my days being overwhelmed by information, so I can completely understand what you’re talking about! Some thoughts and ideas...
First off, I suggest that your primary SEO efforts should be centered on creating great content rather than learning about keyword density, inbound link percentages, and so on. To me, great search engine results are about producing what people -- and search engines -- seek, not trying to figure out "the angles" or trick the system into giving you better results (and yes, I know some readers will disagree. That's okay. Even with the very best SEO in the world, you always need to ask "what do people find once they end up on the landing page?" That's where content, good, useful, interesting and valuable content, comes into play)
The biggest number you should be tracking is ROI. If you're using AdWords, for example, you can quantify exactly what you're spending for a click through to your site, and since you also should be able to track conversion (e.g., visitor -> customer) you should be able to then put those two numbers together and calculate cost per sale. That's a critical, critical figure.
For example, let's say that you have to bid $0.75/click for a decent placement on AdWords and of those clicks, only 10% actually add your product to their shopping cart, and then only 50% of those actually complete the transaction successfully. Therefore, for every 10 visitors you buy from Google (at a cost of $7.50), you get one customer. But not quite, because 50% of those drop out during the purchase process, so it's really double that, $15.00. Now, what’s your profit-per-sale? If it's less than $15, you are losing money through your online advertising and that's bad!
Fortunately, Google AdWords has the ability to hook in various tracking tools, and your AdWords rep (or anyone on their team) should be able to help you hook that into your own shopping cart and store system. Again, don't delay on this, because far more than any other stat you can generate or number you might want to track, being able to calculate your cost-per-sale is huge.
Hope that helps you get your numbers in line!
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I have to agree with Dave on this one regarding your ROI. If you are just starting out, that number will be easy to calculate and will be very valuable as you move forward in your business. At a minimum, you'll discover how much you should be willing to spend for a click. Great stuff as always Dave. Thanks!