Can you be penalized for a search term?

I have a site that is ranking really well for some terms. BUT IS COMPLETELY NON EXISTENT for my key term... In fact, for some terms it is number one.. but for the term I am actually SEOing for? No where. It is not a very competitive term and I am literally not in the first 500...

Any ideas?

It is much harder to rank for a competative term than a non competative term.

ideas: - a) target longtail versions of the term you are trying to rank for. Longtails have much better conversion rates.

b) Make sure that the backlinks you get have the anchor text that includes various combinations of that term.

c) Create content on your site that relevant authority sites would find useful. Send them email and let them know about the content. Also Social bookmark your content.

d) Pay for some SEO help/advice to review what you have been doing and offer advice on what you should/could be doing now.

e) Do not give up or get dissalusioned.


Best of luck...

Really, this is what you give me? I ask you a question about a specific problem with a specific site, and you respond with canned SEO 101... I was really hoping for much more... How is this answer, any better, or even as good as I could get on ANY SEO forum anywhere on the web... or even in a 1 minute google search.

This site has decent content, decent inbounds, no obvious cannonizaltion issues, ranks well for terms that are not necessarily less competitve, etc... It is not in the top 500 for an average search term.. I am looking for a glaring duplication, or url based issue, or a penalty or something...

I am will to pay if needed... are you sure you cant do better?

Thanks

You did not ask a specific question about a specific site. We have no details. What's the keyword term? What's your site? How many inbound links do you have to the page with that term? How many pages of your site are linking to it with keyword phrase? How about your competitors? Do they have better linkage?

Can your site be banned/penalized for one term? No.

In most probabilities, your competitors have done a better job than you. They've got better inbound linkage and/or onpage optimization.

I am so sorry. You are correct. I am wrong.

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED. I am really frustrated. This site WAS ranked well... it just dropped off...

I am sorry for answering. If you know the answers already why did you ask? google away...

It's pretty cool how my sites often do well in the search engines for terms that i have never even thought of. If it's high traffic search terms, then bring it on