SEO professionals use Wordtracker to identify profitable keywords. Easy to use by the occasional user with pay as you go plans. Take a look at Wordtracker.com
Hosting problems got you down? Drop 'em and get more features for less! If you like reseller accounts, take a look at Site5.com and HostGator.com.
Personally, I prefer virtual private servers - protect yourself against hobbyists getting your "shared" mailserver blacklisted by controlling your own mailserver! If you prefer cpanel or directadmin management panels, take a look at JaguarPC.com. If you like Plesk / swsofts panels and want a VPS at a price better than most reseller accounts, look no further than eapps.com - that's my choice. Tell 'em that Galley sent you.
Validated code is also important.
To be honest, most webmasters don't worry about validating their code as often
as they should. Running validation through a service like: http://validator.w3.org/
is a great way to make sure that your website is readable by the search engines.
Validated code means that all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes is
laid out the way it should be. If it's all good, the spiders don't miss things.
