How do you differentiate between words with more than one meaning?

Here is my dilemna, I just started a new job and am in the process of analyzing the sites that will be under my jurisidiction.

In doing search engine optimization, how do you differentiate between words that have more than one meaning? For instance, how could you differentiate between a crane (the bird) and a crane (as in a construction crane)?

Thanks!

I'd asume the keyword crane along with other site relevant keywords would, when taken in context with the description tag and site copy, produce the targeted viewer. A few key phrases in the keywords tag should help get the right audience - something like 'cranes for hire' or 'African blue cranes'.

Any ornithologists - or builders - who type the single word crane into a search engine should see the description and visit if it's their 'crane' your optimizing for.

ATB

Thanks for the tips. I realize that based on a good description or site title, that the user would know if it was the right place or not, but was wondering more for site ranking issues.

For site ranking issues it is only going to depend on two things. As said before, it needs to have other relevant keywords that show exactly what your keyword means. The second is that the people that are searching for that keyword actually know what they way. There's no point in having grat search results for "crane" when you've got a site about mobile hoists when all you're getting visiting is bird watchers. It's a very hard thing to differentiate for SE's.

Some of the best examples of URL's...

www.oddsexcahnge.com - is this "Odds Exchage" (betting) or "Odd Sex Change"... (you can guess....)
www.penisland.com - Yeah, it's really Pen Island... But did you think that?

What it comes down to is relevant keywords that promote what you want them to. That is what you need to concentrate on, and then you'll see good results.