Beginner question about ranking multiple keywords

[bonjourvn]

I am new to the SEO field. Today I was very proud of myself for using two very similar keyword phrases for one article. A co-worker of mine who knows much more about this than I do said I would be better off making two very similar articles rather than one article with both keywords. Saying it would confuse Google as to which phrase I was trying to rank for. That being said, I believe him but he couldn't elaborate further. The phrases are 'last minute deals' and 'clearance deals' for those of you who are curious. They are very similar and both will show up in the title, meta tags, etc. My question to you is could someone please explain how or why Google wouldn't rank the same article as high for using both keywords as well as it would for one? Apart from the minor discrepancy in ratio of keywords to total words.

Thank You

 

[angilina]

I will suggest to write content for users. That is: write useful content, content that will help the users. Keywords will come naturally. Use 1,2 etc keywords in the same article and if the content is great, then it may rank high for all keywords.

Also, getting quality backlinks with keywords in anchor text will help a lot.