It is suggested to use the keyword in your domain name, the H1 tag, the title tag, etc. for on-site SEO. That way, search engines get a clear picture of what your site is about.

One big off-site SEO factor, of course, is backlinks. A highly valuable backlink is one that uses the anchor text of the keyword that you are targeting. Also, if the backlink is one-way and do-follow, it is much more valuable.

Today I launched a niche website directory that is hosted here on this blog. It covers a broad range of categories. I will be manually approving all submissions and won’t allow any junk to come through.

I’m only going to allow a keyword to be used just one time in the directory. In other words, if you and a competitor are targeting the exact same keyword/keyphrase, the listing will be given to the first one to submit their site.

You can submit as many sites as you like, but you cannot submit the same site more than once trying to target more than one keyword. Pick your best one and go with that. Feel free to submit an internal page of your site, but I am only going to accept one site submission per domain. Check it out.

More info: What Keyword Are You Targeting? Want Some Help?