Cumorah is the key

Cumorah (the Jaredite Ramah) is the key to Book of Mormon geography. Not only does it connect the two ancient civilizations (Nephites and Jaredites), but it is the one definite modern site identified by Joseph, Oliver, and their contemporaries and successors.

For an overview of Cumorah, see https://www.mobom.org/cumorah-overview 

There are three ways to think of Cumorah.

1. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were correct when they taught it was a fact that the hill in New York is the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 (and the Jaredite Ramah of Ether 15:11).

2. Joseph and Oliver were incorrect because:

a. They could not have known where Cumorah was so they speculated and later concluded the location of Cumorah was a matter for scholars (faithful approach adopted by many LDS scholars and their followers).

b. They could not have known where Cumorah was because the Book of Mormon is fiction (skeptical approach adopted by critics).

One of the principal objections to the New York Cumorah/Ramah is the idea that hundreds of thousands of Nephites, Lamanites and Jaredites were killed there. But the text does not actually say that. Instead, the text describes battles involving far fewer people. This reading is consistent with the archaeology in the area.

See the discussion of Cumorah numbers here:

https://www.mobom.org/cumorah-overview/cumorah-numbers 

Comparison tables. Some comparisons of the various theories are available here:

https://www.mobom.org/comparison-tables