Many search engine optimization efforts are focused on pushing the home page of a site. This is a fundamental mistake that can result in the site missing out on a lot of traffic.
Go Wide, Young Man
In nearly every case, a site should be designed to draw traffic through both the home page and various internal pages. Home pages, obviously, can be tailored to the primary keyword phrases you are seeking, but dont forget the minor pages.
I always find it odd when people ask which keyword phrase they should try to optimize for on their site. They become a bit flummoxed when I tell them to optimize for all of them. The only question is which keywords should appear on which pages.
For example, the site NomadJournals.com sells writing journals for outdoor activities such as fly fishing, traveling, hiking, bird watching and so on. So, which of these subjects should be used as the keyword phrase for the home page? None! Instead, the generic term writing journals was chosen. But what about the specific journal subjects?
The individual pages on the site promoting each journal are optimized for the specific product. The fly fishing journal page is optimized...