When people search the web, most pick a set of keywords related to their current activity and enter them in their favorite search engine. Then, they click on the first results they see, very rarely getting passed the first page. It is therefore important to pick a few keywords that describe you and optimize your website for them.
SEO TIP : Analyze your logs
See what keywords people are coming with (search terms) and see how you can optimize those words. Done well, putting these words in bold/ customizing page with search result can actually increase visitor satisfaction
SEO TIP: Picking the right keywords
The more a word is popular, the more you will have competition for that keyword. Although it is good to rank well with these words, sometimes ranking number one for a less popular synonym may bring more traffic... sometimes even optimizing a particular page (not your main page) for a common spelling mistake can bring in traffic (not everyone spells perfectly)
SEO TIP: Get the right Keyword Density
Forget what you learned in English class, repetition is good in SEO. Obviously it is important to make sense otherwise people will go away quickly and never come back... but repeat the important words, especially in titles, descriptions and header tags.
SEO TIP: Domain match/ Subdomain match
If you can put your important keywords in the domain/ subdomain, it can help... especially if it is an exact match for the search expression
SEO TIP: Optimize the links
The links within your website should contain the important keywords to optimize. Ideally, links from other domains also should contain the keywords
SEO TIP: Diversify keyword optimization
Have some pages optimized for certain keywords and others optimized for other keywords. That way you can get even more traffic
SEO TIP : do a comparative analysis
Tools such as google ad sense allow you to see how popular some keywords are... it will even suggest related words