Knowing When Not to Optimize - Wants top rankings in Google for 300 keywords
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I don't know if you've come across this, but I just love it when someone approaches my team members and me with a very long list of very specific search queries that she or he wants a site to rank first with. So much for getting creative at building the right keyword strategy! The person just went to Overture's keyword suggestion tool and copied a long list of keywords. Well, maybe that's not exactly what was done, but you get the point.
One of the better things that I've learned from Jill Whalen, one of the SEO pioneers, is that SEO is very much about focus. A site is quite limited in the number of phrases for which it can target and achieve top search engine rankings. Whether you're a strong follower of the Hilltop algorithm approach, believe that the race will be won by the best link campaign, or that content is and will always be king, it doesn't change the fact that a site is still quite limited in the number of search phrases it can realistically target. Now, of course, there are massive sites out there that can achieve top rankings for hundreds and even thousands of phrases, but those are extreme examples.
Sometimes, you may get pushed into taking on a project that is too optimistic, shall we say, in regards to the number of highly competitive, unique phrases that shall be targeted. If you are not careful, disappointment may be on its way.
Competing with an existing market leader in a highly competitive market
Sometimes, someone will say "Yeah, we've launched a new site. We're doing this and we're very serious about that and we plan to become leaders in this other thing… blah blah." Now the sand-boxed, link-unpopular site is supposed to compete with a market leader that has been developing a mammoth link campaign since 1994 (and the first version of that site even used to be compatible with IE 2.0 and Netscape 3.0!).
Just as in any market, the goals and strategy must be realistic about the player's relative positioning in the marketplace. If the leaders are too far ahead, this better be put openly on the table. It's highly recommended that alternate strategies be formulated.
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