agerhart - 2:24 pm on Jan 18, 2002 (gmt 0)

That is a good question Craig, and a very important part of keyword selection, research, and optimization.

I think that you can effectively target three keyword phrases, this is what I target at the most, on one page, but there are certain variables and requirements that must be met.

- I would make sure that there is enough supporting content on the page.....not just the word repeated a few times.

- The keywords should all be related and in most cases be keyword variations.....following the theme approach. For example, if you want to target "large widgets" you could also optimize for "small widgets" and "medium widgets" effectively.

- While choosing which keywords to optimize for and which ones to group on the same page, I think it is important to make sure that you are not trying to target a highly competitive keyword as a sub-keyword. In other words, if your main keyword for the page is "small widgets" and is not too competitive and you want to target "medium widgets" but that keyword is highly competitive, I would not try to couple the two. I think in this case it is better to have seperate pages for the keywords.

- As dilution is concerned, I think that you will only dilute the strength if there is no content, and if they are no closely related. The search engines will pick up on the pattern that is forming as long as you lead them in the right direction.