Keyword and Keyphrases

[design_man]

I'm looking to optimise my website for some keywords and keyphrases I'm getting a bit confused on how different pages might compete (or help) each other.

As we are an automotive dealer I was thinking about building the hompage around 4 keywords (one for each franchise we represent e.g 'Ford'). These show high local monthly searches and medium competition for just the manufacturer name on its own.

Then if someone drills down into a franchise homepage (linked from our homepage e.g. www.ourwebsite.com/ford) I was thinking to optimise the page around e.g. 'Ford Dealer' (which has medium local monthly searches and high competition).

Then if someone drills down into a particular model I optimise around that and so on.

Question is will I be playing the franchise homepage vs the group homepage (Ford vs Ford Dealer) as I have read here on Keyword Cannibalization? Or will it work together?

Alternative I guess is not to focus around a franchise on the group homepage and then only focus on the franchise from the franchise homepage onwards but I feel I would be missing a trick?

As a new kid on the block help will be most appreciated.

[AlanMosley]

When it comes to keyword cannibalization, you should not link away from your page with that pages keyword to a page you do not want to rank for that same keyword.
If page A and page B both are equal in optimization for ford, then you link from A to B with the link text Ford, B will now be more relevant, but don’t let rule your decisions. Since ford dealer also needs to rank, what better way than to link to it with the keyword from the home page. it’s a bit like having money but never spending it.
OK now lets introduce Page C, lets say it’s a contact page, you don’t want it to rank for Ford. Then you do not want to link to it with the keyword Ford (example Ford contact page). You would be wasting the relevance.