How Many Keywords Should You Target Per Page?

[MichaelWeisbaum]

What do you think is the most appropriate/efficient amount of keywords to target per page for a website?  Obviously, it may depend on the type/size of the site, but I've noticed different results with different clients.  Early on, I targeted way too many keywords per page, then scaled them back as I learned more.  I'm almost starting to think that you should just target 1-2 keywords per page to be efficient and more natural.  Thoughts?

[RyanKent]

Michael, I like your current thoughts. One to two keywords is optimal. Any more then two dilutes your efforts and you will not be able to rank as well against other web pages who focus on just one key phrase.

[USHoleInOne]

1-2 sounds resonable, but I have had problems with 2 seperate keywords. One will always be more dominant than the other.

I think creating a separate page with your second keyword could help out as well.

I have a client where the second keyword is the file name of an html page, and it shows up on the first SERP page even though the home page content is different, but relevant.

Example= "www.site.com/keyword-2.html"

[sbcinv]

Michael, I would be interested to understand this question in a different way.  While you may optimise a page for say one or two keywords from an SEO point of view, how might that vary (if at all) for an SEM campaign.  In many cases the same page (especially a product page) will be used for SEO and SEM so I would be interested to extend your question and say in addition how many keywords should you optimise for an SEM campaign and then for a combined SEM and SEO campaign as well as just the SEO campaign?  Is there any real difference?