My site has pages competing against themselves in SERPS - what now?

[dvdpro]

I need some help figuring out what to do with the following situation. FYI I'm not trying to target "dell laptops" and "dell computers", I'm just using them as examples of what's happening with me. My keywords are similar to each other, but are different enough that not everyone searching for one would be interested in the other.

Ok, I've had this site for a few years and decided to pursue SEO to get traffic. A few months ago I started optimizing the site and have been regularly doing some optimization to increase my search engine rankings. Instead of optimizing the site for both keywords "dell laptops" and "dell computers" at the same time (keep in mind I'm still a beginner at this) I decided to optimize the main page for "dell laptops" initially and then after I got the hang of SEO, I would optimize another page (on the same domain) for "dell computers".

Here's what happened. After a 4 or so months of SEO my rankings increased from 600+ to position 16 for "dell laptops", which is good. But for some reason the page targeted towards "dell laptops" is also ranking at position 30 for "dell computers".

So what do I do now? Do I...

1) Ignore the ranking for "dell computers" and continue optimizing the main page for "dell laptops", then build a new page specifically for "dell computers" and start optimizing for that page as well?

2) Start optimizing the main page for both "dell laptops" and "dell computers" and hope that I can rank the same page in the top 1-3 positions for 2 terms?

If I could get the main page to rank in the top 3 for both keywords, then I would much rather do that...but the thing is I don't see that really happening. I did look at the search results for both keywords and see 2-3 pages in the top 10 promoting the other keyword, but none of those pages are in the top 3. What would you recommend doing?

[RevSEO]

I'd recommend going after #1, and linking on the page that is ranking well to the new page for "dell computers". You know that the authority is already on that page, and by linking to it you'll pass some of that authority on to the new page.

I'd then recommend setting up link building campaigns for both pages for the target keywords. Keep in mind that right now you must have both keywords on the page that is ranking well, so I'd possibly even remove the dell computers keyword and only have it on your new page. Be sure to setup friendly URLs with the keyword in it for the new page as well.

Over time you'll see the double listing for that same page switch out and your new page switch in, assuming you follow the advice above.

[BenJackson]

It's always best to focus on one keyword until you get the #1 position. Here's why:

The 1st result gets roughly 40% of the traffic
The 2nd result gets roughly 12% of the traffic

It's a big jump from 2-1, just go for the #1 spot first with one keyword. You won't be able to avoid gaining authority and increasing your rankings for many other keywords along the way