I've seen new Guides announced and we've got lots of recent additions on the mailing list, so it looks like things are moving along, even though there may be delays.
Don't worry about the HTML or Wordpress. I use Blogger and picked up Wordpress just by playing with it. For HTML, the main tags I use are <p>,<b>,<ul>,<ol>, and <li>, just about as basic as you can get. As Herdon said, don't worry about SEO right off the bat. During prep they want to see how you write, if you can learn the tools, and if you are a good overall fit. Then you get into the nitty-gritty if you make it through.