I my case:
Step 1:
First I just on Seomoz (you can get a free 30 days account) and creat a new campaign. Wait 1 week and get the ports from them.
Step 2:
Will waiting for the reports from SEOMoz I'm gathering vital data from all the major pages.
This is where I check the Meta Data (not that important but I do it), I check if my vanity keywords are present inside the page:
-At last 1 time on a <h1> tag.
-Used at last 3-4 times inside the text.
-Used at last once in a <a href> tag.
-Check if the ending URL is that same as my vanity keyword. (Ex: domain.com/keyword.html/php/etc)
-I do some canonical pages for more juice.
-When I have time I also try to get some backlinks (only and only do-follow). The numer of backlinks depends on the keyword and competition.
Step 3:
At this time I'll have my SEOMoz reports with in-detail description, so I'll start to work on the pages which got the next grades: F, E, D and when I have time I'll normally improve the pages which got the next grades: C, B, A
Step 4:
Gather report, check which page is performing the best (normally top 20-30 pages) and try to follow the steps I did for them on the pages which does not meet my needs.
Step 5:
Make sure we have all the things most people ignore: favicon, sitemap, RSS feed, FB page and many other stuff.
This is how I normally act. There are many ways, but here is a Pro TIP. BackHat SEO is not the answer.
Pro TIP nr2: there is no "Rank 1st on google over night" this are only lies! You need to work your ass to reach that rank.
My reply is based on my past experience at aquazone DOT ro(Nr 1 Swimming website in romania) neoxfiles DOT com (my personal website) inot DOT ro, agua DOT ro and way too much other pages