Without proper keyword research, your SEO efforts will be mostly wasted.

Keywords are the basis of all the rest of the search engine optimization you will implement, both on and off site. Spend plenty of time on it - don't rush through it.

Using them you will build:

• Titles
• Meta descriptions
• Headers
• Content
• Alt attributes
• Bulleted lists
• Links
• Link text

How do you do this research? Glad you asked! Below is a list of tools you can use; some are free, others have a free trial period. You may know of others - these are just the ones that come to my mind right now.

1. Overture (times out a lot, hard to get much research done sometimes)
2. Keyword Discovery (take advantage of the free trial period)
3. Wordze (free until this coming Monday)
4. Word Tracker
5. Good Keywords (free, easy to use, and uses Overture)
   
6. Black Hat SEO Keyword Tool (good way to find terms you hadn't thought of)
7. Google Adwords Keyword Tool (does not give search count, only graphs)
8. Microsoft Ad Intelligence
9. Google Webmaster Tools for your site

Using 2 or 3 of these tools, determine which keyword phrases are searched for the most. These are your top tier keywords. There's usually a sharp decline in number of searches after them, and the following words are your 2nd tier keywords. The lesser searched for terms are the 3rd tier and longtail keywords.

Top tier keywords are the most competitive. If you site is new or has few links, and competition is high, you need to focus more on the second tier (although don't ignore the top tier keywords).

Assign 3-5 different keywords to each page of your site. You should have at least 3 and really 5 (or more) pages of original, unique content on your site, even if it is a templated real estate site, so fight to get those if you have to. A site with only one original page is pretty much doomed.

Use these 3-5 keywords as a focus for your title, tags, and content on the chosen page. Don't use them redundantly. Most of the sites I optimize don't have more than 3% density of any given keyword. Don't make your title, header, and alt attibutes all "My Town Real Estate." Mix it up, make it natural - you don't want anything on your site to look or sound duplicated or spammy. Put the top tier keyword phrases in your content, but again, you may have to focus on 2nd tier for your main keywords until you gain some traction in the SERPs.

If you spend the time initially on keyword research, the rest of your SEO efforts will come together much more smoothly and your results will be immeasurably better.