Picking keywords for homepage

The site in question covers 8 different categories which I've done extensive research on.

Only a couple of these categories Google considers to be in the same "neighborhood".

I've chosen 3 keywords i want to target for each category page, but now the question i'm faced with is which keywords should i target on the home page?

Do i pick my "favorite" 3 categories and include a keyword related to each of those?

Would i put my best keywords on the home page? or save them for the main category page? Do you ever duplicate keywords from page to page?

Thanks,

Chocko

Perhaps a little more explanation is needed to answer my question: I'm basically trying to bridge the gap between keyword research and applying said research to my page.

See below for an example. Let each number represent a keyword.

So lets say I've done research on 3 different niches which will be represented each with its own page on my site, as categories.

Niche One: 1, 2, 3, 4
Niche Two: 5, 6, 7, 8
Niche Three: 9, 10, 11, 12

(these numbers represent the top 4 keywords i want to target for each niche, in descending order)

Now that I have my keyword research and want to apply them to the content I'm going to create for my site, which keywords do i target where?

I want to target 3 keyword per category page, but that leaves me wondering about the home page.

Which is right?

A:
Home Page: 1, 5, 9
Category Page One: 2, 3, 4
Category Page Two: 6, 7, 8
Category Page Three: 10, 11, 12

(A uses the best keyword from each niche on the homepage, then uses what's left over for each category page)

B:
Home Page: 4, 8, 12
Category Page One: 1, 2, 3
Category Page Two: 5, 6, 7
Category Page Three: 9, 10, 11

(B uses the best keywords for each niche on its own category page, then uses what's leftover on the home page)

or C:
Home Page: 1, 5, 9
Category Page One: 1, 2, 3
Category Page Two: 5, 6, 7
Category Page Three: 9, 10, 11

(C uses the best keywords for each niche on the home page as well as on each category page. This one has keyword duplication)

Does my question make sense now? Any help or advice would be awesome, thanks!

I don't think there is any such thing keyword duplication... Correct me if i am wrong... I am talking in this context...

For example if i make a site on acai berry, i will certainly have several pages with acai berry keyword... no harm in this... You should keep different title, different description and different content.... I believe you can now judge yourself...

BTW You should pick keywords which are relevant to content on your page...

It really depends on which keywords you are trying to drive your traffic too. Im sure you are aware of the technique of driving traffic to your site using low competition keywords and then using your insite design to funnel them to a high competition keyword so that the adsense CPC is higher and you get paid more.
This same technique can also proove usefull when approaching your niche sites as an affiiliate. If your end goal from a user was to make a sale of lets say an amazon product through your affiliate link, then your best option would be to funnel the relevant traffic coming to your site to your "sales page" where the visitor is given a solution to their problem... this is another aspect that isnt worth going into in this reply.

In respose to your question, it really depends on the keywords you are wanting to drive traffic to and which ones have minimal competition. Bare in mind that the keywords on your homepage should generally be the higher competition keywords as they will need more backlinks to rank well. As a default I would run with option A, but be aware that this funnels link juice to your catagories, however, if these happen to be high traffic baring keywords, then that would be the best option.

Might I suggest you pm me your niche or url and I can give you my opinion as to how you sould proceed.

Otherwise talk to bizroot, he has demonstrated in his thread that he knows his stuff, ranking for a keyword like fitness is no minor achievment.

Hit us up, I and Im sure bizroot would be more than happy to help you out

use the hardest to rank for, main keywords on the homepage. then more specific keywords inside the site to 3 levels. reason being the site will rank for the keywords on the homepage and the inside pages will drive juice forward to the home page for the sub-niche more specific keywords, resulting in 2 linstings in the serp; the main page and right below it, the sub/specific page.

eg homepage - short harder to rank for keywords, general niche:

widgets, wheels and wood. Best widgets wheels and wood online

create a category for each

domain.com/widgets
domain.com/wheels
domain.com/wood

deep pages - longer tail easier to rank for keywords, specific niche
link to category pages

domain.com/widgets/auto-widgets
domain.com/widgets/manual-widgets

domain.com/wood/big-wood
domain.com/wood/small-wood

etc etc

got it?

exactly. main (hard) keywords on the homepage and long tail ones on your other pages. another reason for this is the majority of your backlinks are going to point to the homepage. your other pages don't need as many because they are long tails that are easier to rank for. your home page will pass some link juice though.

:rocketwho wow!, from zero replies to 4 great ones. Thanks to all for taking the time to read my lengthy question and then respond in a helpful way.

Note: That smiley is the coolest I've ever seen.

Okay, on to business:

You guys cleared up 80% of my questions. The leftover ambiguity is the result of the type of niches I'm trying to put together. As mentioned in my original post, only like 3 of these niches does google consider to be in the same neighborhood, all these niches are also quite small, and I'm needing to put 8 on the same site.

I'm going to PM Posiedon as he suggested with actual data so he can give me more specific advice. I'll update this thread with what I end up doing.

replied to your pm