The first aim is to choose 1-2 main keywords for that page that we will try to promote that will reach the search results you’re aiming for. If we will choose more than 1-2 main keywords per page, the focus becomes diluted, and we probably won’t make it to where we’re really trying to get. You can choose more than one keyword if you insist, but the rest of the keyword should be variations, synonyms or phrases including the main keyword (this will definitely help since Google knows which keywords are related to others).

1. Keyword Research

The first thing you have to do is review the page and prepare a list of related keywords. From this list we will start to work. From here you will have to choose your favorite keyword analysis tool or several tools (my recommendation is the Adwords Keyword Tool or the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool by Aaron Wall).
After choosing the tool, examine the keywords, compare competition, length etc. The best keywords will be chosen according to the criteria defined by you or by your client. It is important that in this part your client will be involved, so his needs and experience will be taken into consideration and to be frank, his experience in what’s relevant to his business trumps yours.

SEO Keyword Optimization

2. Look at your competitors

What are your competitors doing? What keywords are they targeting? You might want to target to the same keywords as they are. Competition may be fierce and you may want to build some authority for your page before you. That’s the reason you should use a tool like the Adwords keyword tool or Aaron Walls tool, because it gives you new keyword suggestions and the estimates search traffic for them in the country/area you defined. With this tool, you can also analyze a specific site’s content and conclude what the main keywords are that the site is targeting.

3. Maybe you’re already a success…

Check what your current positions are for past targeted keywords. If you’re located second for a well-searched term/keyword, don’t try too hard – you’re already there. In this case, you’d better create a new page for similar keywords and not change the current one. The website SEODigger can help you find the keywords that your site has rankings for.

4. Start optimizing!

Start inserting h tags, writing keyword targeted content (watch the density!!), insert alt-text tags to your images and so on. If you have many related keywords that you’re interested in promoting, consider changing the page that you’re working on into gate page. One that links to many different sub-pages, each targeted to one of the keyword variations.

5. Did you think that we wouldn’t mention social media??

Submit your newly SEO optimized page to a bunch of web 2.0 and social media sites – create virtual presence to this page. This process will not be whole without some bookmarking.

6. Internal linking

Whether it’s a new page or an old one, review your site’s internal linking. Add suitable links to your footer/sitemap. By doing so you’re not only making sure that it will be easy for Google to reach this page and index it, but also letting Google know that these are the most important pages on your site. Just don’t overdo it. Too many pages in your footer and Google thinks you’re trying to mess with it and then it might penalize you accordingly.

7. Follow, review and analyze

This is crucial to measure exactly how the changes that you have made affect the search results. Prepare a special sheet describing the changes that have been made in the site and include the original location in the search results. This way, in case you harm the page (which can happen if you over-optimize), you can always undo what you did.

You may also want to take a look at a great post for Keyword discovery by Rishil on SEOmoz which is called Building Bricks: Keyword Discovery Process for Small Businesses

And another great hubpage I wrote in the same topic: http://hubpages.com/hub/10-First-SEO-Steps