Zagek - 10:43 am on Sep 4, 2008 (gmt 0)

I would say that keyword density is not as important as people say, or as it used to be.

I follow Google's advice of writing for the visitors, although I do include keywords as I am going.

For your second part; are you using the META description tag? If you are not, I would advice doing so. It is essentially free advertising space on the SERP's so it is key to place a paragraph in their that you think will bring in the visitors and include relevant keywords.