When people tell you to aim for the keyword "free", that word is too generic and has too much competition. I just did a search on Yahoo! for "free" and it returned 749,000,000 results. That's over 10% of the world using "free" as the basis of what they are selling.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't have "free" on your page; it's on most of my pages too. What I am saying is this:
Your keyword focus should define a product or service and not just be the single word "free".
Keyword Phrases: If "free" isn't a keyword, then what is? Keywords are typically 2-5 word phrases that you expect others to search for to find your website. Would you expect people to type that into a browser to find your site?
If you were looking for your own product, what would you type in? What kind of product or service do you offer? Those answers might lead to some good keyword phrases.
Keyword Length: A longer search phrase can also better target and increase consumer intent. Some say short keyword searchers are browsers while long keyword searchers are buyers. As you add various modifiers to your keywords, you are more likely to match general keywords with more specific ones, generating more relevant search results that appear on the page. Most good keyword phrases are 2-5 words long.
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