Which is better?

[diehard]

Build an umbrella site that is broad and authoritative, based on one higher demand keyword or (2) build a niche site that is of course, specific to one or two keywords, with far less demand.

[KansasDragon]

Yes, you got it.

You could actually combine those strategies doings niche pages within your broader site. Or groups of pages within your site.

A good example, a Men's Health site, would have an overall theme of Men's Health, but would have categories concerning Exercise, Diet, Prostrate Disease, Men's Sexuality, etc.. Each of those categories would be optimized for their category, or for the particular topic being discussed.

It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish with your site. If you're wanting to have a diverse site, covering a wide topic, then use the combined strategy.

If you're just promoting a single product, then narrow it down more tightly, making pages optimized for the keywords you're targeting for that product.

Now, I'll sit back and watch the other comments you receive, always good to learn more from the experts here.

[Mel]

I'm not an expert but I agree with Barry. I work on the back-end of both types of sites for my clients and it does depend on what you're trying to accomplish.

One client has a fairly large site with several focused topic areas and it works for drawing lots of traffic and sharing information. The goal for this site is getting people to purchase through affiliate links and of course earning money from adsense.

Another client is very focused on products that she creates. Each product has a different focus so individual sites work better. With these niche sites, she's able to narrow her traffic down to those who are specifically looking for that exact product or information. This client does have a "hub" site so to speak that links to all of her other sites. It gives more info about her and so forth. The hub site is mainly because people tend to search her name and this way they can find her and all her different products in a central location as well as separately.