Mapping Keywords to Pages
TweetOnce you have gone over our keyword strategy guide and figured out which terms you are going to target it's type to associate those keywords with content. This is where you decide which pages you want to rank for when a user searches for the keywords you are targeting. You want to choose the most relevant page on your site that will deliver to the visitor exactly what they are looking for.
You are not going to be able to optimize a single page of your site for a wide variety of terms. Your title and meta description only allow for so many characters before you are cut off. That is why we target only 1-3 keywords per page. You will want to create new content on your site that is fully optimized for each of the major keywords you are going after and that content should deliver exactly what the user expects to find for that particular search.
Now, you don't need to create new pages for every small modifier of your term. As long as the modifier doesn't completely change the meaning (free v. buy), most can be combined for a single page of your site. When you are creating a brand new site, it's more important to focus on the bigger picture and get content created for your more general terms first. After getting the basic structure of your site complete you can work down on the extremely specific content within the broader categories.
As your site matures you are going to want to use your analytics to map out additional keywords. If people are finding your site already using a keyword term, then make sure you are serving them the answers they are looking for. If you aren't, create that content and start directing that traffic to the appropriate page. You won't have to do much work to rank for these terms since you already are, but you will be able to increase your conversion rate off of that traffic.
So where does that leave the homepage? Your homepage is likely going to have the most incoming links and thus the most pagerank of any page on your site. However, your homepage likely will not be very specific for any kind of search term. That means you should take your 1-3 most important, competitive, general keywords and target them to your homepage. As you keep working on your SEO you will be able to rank for more and more terms, but start small and achieve some successful rankings before you move on to additional terms.