Just wondering, is it better to have a bigger list of keyword variations focused around your main keyword phrase?
no... don't do the mistake i did. if you try to rank 1 page for many keywords, you confuse the search engines. each page should be focused on 2-3 keywords
overall primary keyword density matter and each page should focus on 2-3 keywords but repeat ur keyword in ur article.
A big list of keywords is good for an entire site. If you focus on one main keyword per page, you quite often will automatically end up ranking for 2 or 3 keywords.
if you are building separate pages of content for each of your keyword, then having a big list is good. in addition you have to do link building to rank for that keywords.