How Many Keywords Per Page for SEO?

For my website, we have taken and created keyword-heaving landing pages for each of our top keywords. They each have their own page. We then have focused the home page on just being the landing page for the single keyword “military disability.” Is that bad? Should we have other keywords on there too? We do have links to the other keyword pages, but haven’t tried to actually optimize this page for those keywords as well since they already have their own landing pages.

Strategy in keywords vs. pages is very important. Here’s how I think about it, starting from the bottom up. First, start with your “micro” or “blog” pages. These are VERY specific pages that tend to answer a VERY specific question. For these pages, the rule of thumb is ONE keyword focus per page.  Nigerian proverb: man who goes after two mice, catches none. So, for a micro page:

1. Choose ONE keyword, very tightly.
2. Write a KEYWORD-focused TITLE tag, and META description tag.
3. Populate the ON PAGE content with keyword-heavy text that supports this KEYWORD TARGET

Second, for your LANDING PAGES, these pages should focus on a KEYWORD FAMILY. In the case of Progressive.com, for example, their MOTORCYCLE INSURANCE PAGE focuses on the phrase “motorcycle insurance” PLUS helper words like quote, rates, comparison, etc. Again, the more focused the better, and note that they have SPLIT the MOTORCYCLE page from the AUTO page from the RV page from the CONDO INSURANCE page, etc.  Also note that the site navigation links UP to these landing pages.  So for landing pages:

1. Choose ONE keyword FAMILY, including related HELPER words.
2. Write a KEYWORD-focused TITLE tag, and META description tag.
3. Populate the ON PAGE content with keyword-heavy text that supports this KEYWORD TARGET
4. SCULPT inbound links to that page FROM site navigation AND from the HOME PAGE around the target phrase.

Finally, with respect to your home page, there are more complicated issues. Your home page is the QUEEN BEE of the website. It has a LOT of power AND a lot of responsibility. So think very very carefully about the TITLE tag of the home page, and META DESCRIPTION tag.  Generally, identify VERY competitive HIGH PRIORITY keywords and put them on the home page, starting with the TITLE tag subject to the < 80 character limit (only about < 69 characters are visible on Google). Also ANY keywords on the home page are VERY powerful, and even more powerful is to link FROM the home page DOWN to the landing pages.

The home page is very special, and can’t be as laser-focused on a keyword as a landing page or a micro page / blog page. The trick is to get them to all WORK TOGETHER.