My advisor tells me that I should try to have all my keywords appear at least once per page in bold, italic, in H1 and H2 tags, in the alt tags, in the meta tags, anchor text, body text, the title tag, the first words that form the body of my site, in the last paragraph of my text and in the links that point to the page. Sound a bit busy. Is this really necessary?

Of course not. Search engine sites try to rank the best copy out there. If the above was true, only search engine optimized copy could rank well, and some well meaning Harvard educated scientist who created a brilliant website on ‘string theory for the general public’ could be outranked by an SEO marketer who knows nothing more than what people search for and how to optimize a site.

Having said that, as more sites get SEO optimized, it is important to feature your keywords if possible in your title tags, in the visible copy that people read and in onsite and offsite links (aka the anchor text).

Beyond that, I wouldn’t stress too much, and focus instead on good, originial content and link building.

The most important places to utilize your researched keyword phrases (anywhere from 3-5 of these per page) are 1) your Title tags, 2) in the visible copy that people read, and 3) in onsite and offsite links (aka the "anchor text").