Does targeting more than one keyword or keyword phrase effect rankings?

[Benj25]

Hi,

We have a homepage where we are targeting three main keywords.

'Cheap books', 'buy books' and 'used books'.

We are ranking well for cheap books and making progress on the more competitive buy and used.

My question is how many keywords can you reasonably rank for on one page.

We are targeting other keywords on other pages and having some success - but is three the maximum or is that too many?

[Benj25]

Thanks Ryan - just what I needed to know.

[RyanKent]

Three is certainly possible but in my experience not optimal. You want to offer as many pages as you can provide compelling, quality content to support the pages. You should also keep in mind the plural and singular forms of words can provide different search results. I would recommend researching the keywords you wish to focus using Google's Adwords tool.

If you are targeting 3 words, and you have a direct competitor targeting just one keyword, then all things being equal your competitor will win (i.e. rank higher).For example, your keywords should be included in your page title, and each word or phrase you add dilutes your weighting for that keyword.

It really depends on your goals. If your goal is to reach the first page on moderately competitive keywords, you may be able to achieve that result and still focus two keywords. If you wish to rank #1 for a competitive keyword, then you should only focus one keyword. You may be able to include the plural or other slight variations, but that would be it.