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Many people seem very obsessed with getting #1 for single keywords on search engines, but they don't realize that quite often, single keywords aren't bringing in Qualified Traffic (i.e., people who are looking more specifically what you're offering). One of my sites (a photo genealogy site) comes up #4 when you do a search on Google for "faces" (5.3 million results). That's good, but people who are searching for "faces" probably won't end up being interested in my site because I'd wager that people searching for "faces" are interested in "photo genealogy".
This search term brings in about 90 unique's a month for that very reason. Other search terms more related to our site bring in many more.
The value of traffic is more important than the amount of traffic or the search ranking for a competitive keyword. They are all interrelated, but you have to concern yourself with value of traffic first.
This is something that can be fine-tuned as you go along. Watch your logs; once in a while you'll spot a new search phrase that is worth playing up a bit more in your site's content.
Probably why i am only involved with sites, that i know the subject matter quite well, hence i am not walking into to it, having to do weeks of research trying to understand the content, then realising what is asked off is inappropriate, completely useless target, wnad will result in bad ROI for them, and daggered eyes towards me.
play it straight, do the reserach and get the ranks that are 100% on topic to the customers products and services, and justify it. Justification, rank under this and this can make money, rank under a general term(s), which your business only offers a niche selection of products and services for, and your ROI, is likely to be very low, as users that come on to your site, thinking they are getting what they want, are finding this select site, and wasting their time, which is very bad for web image and street cred > 'word of mouth'.
