How many keywords should I target?

[craigwilson]

Quality, not quantity, is the focus of keyword strategy - there is no absolute rule for how many keywords and phrases you need to target. And before you even begin developing a list, you must understand your target audience and the language different searchers use when looking for your specific products, services and information online.

[jayanta1]

In general when selecting keywords, number of keywords is not the main consideration - instead we select those keywords most likely to give the best return on investment (ROI) for the client. This may just be 5 very important keywords, or it may be 50 significant keywords,

[zerocool7]

When starting out I personally would not try to focus on a lot of keywords at once. Maybe find 2 or 3 important ones and optimize for that.

[brill_mindz]

Not only should you follow one keyword, even if you have a very limited budget or think that one keyword encompasses anything you do or sell. It is a mistake because when it's a heavily searched keyword, then if it's the competition to rank well then it's going to be tough and it's going to be really challenging to get your site in top places, so ranking 1 keyword won't draw enough traffic to your site.

[inoxindia]

It all depends on the size of your content, competition in the niche etc.
Do not try to include keywords for search engines rather keywords should come naturally in the content. we have seen mostly 2 - 4% keyword density is good. But again it depends on how and where you are mentioning those keywords in your content.
As Chris Kilbourn said always concentrate on a single primary topic (Primary Keywod) per page/per page Title.

[brill_mindz]

You can do some keyword research with tools like the Google Keyword Planner to figure it out. That'll show you the approximate popularity of different phrases like "running shoes," "athletic shoes," and "jogging shoes."

[eSage IT]

The number of keywords one should target depends entirely on the size of the content. But one must consider targeting one keyword as a "primary keyword". It is considered that mostly 2% keyword density is good. But again it depends on how and where you are mentioning those keywords in your content. Other than that we can even use LSI keywords. We must not do keyword stuffing as it might impact negatively.