When to switch it up

When we first started our SEO implementation, our site was showing up poorly for very few keywords. Instead of diving in head first into shallow water, we went after some low-moderately competitive keywords. We are now doing fairly well in the SERP's for many terms. We now have a presence on the major search engines. There was some advice given (from here) that you should target less competitive keywords in the beginning in order to get things started. My question is, is it still too soon to start going after the more competitive key terms? Can you determine whether its a good idea or not to go for the competitive terms? Any advice?

No - never too soon to start...

Leave everything "on-site" the same and just alternate the link anchors in link development to more competitive terms more frequently and the less competitive terms once in a while.

So you are suggesting when building links to start targeting more competitive keywords? Currently, we do not have those competitive keywords on the site. I would presume you should add the keyterms before building links with the competitive terms?

I don't think that competitive key terms are good to start the new sites because you have to do some extraordinary efforts for your target keywords which is not so easy and it will take long time.Some time it depends on your budget also.

When I start a new site, I optimize it ( on-page ) for both the very competitive keywords and the less competitive ones. Then, I optimize it off-page to first achieve good rankings for the low competition keywords. When that goal is achieved, I start the off-page optimization for the very competitve keywords.

Generally, the less competitive keywords are keyphrases containing the very competitive keywords, so the process of achieving good rankings for the low competition keywords is also a part of the process of optimizing for the very competitive keywords.

Interesting concept. Would you mind giving me an example of the 2nd part of your statement? Just curious to see what you are saying. How often are you changing the content on these pages? Are you changing it at all or are you mainly building links in order to get and maintain the results?

I find it easier to rank for kephrases containing 3+ words ( these phrases appear naturally in the content of the page, they're used that way because they describe the theme of the site and the page as a whole becomes valuable for both surfers and search engines.

Now, the content is not changed very often, most of the time tweaked for both search engines and for better conversions.

If you need an example, here's one I can think of now. You have a page you want to rank for "widgets", because you sell widgets, you have all types of widgets. So, naturally, the content of the page will contain keywords such as: "blue widgets", "red widgets", "personalized widgets", "original resistant widgets" and so on. Rankings for these will be easier than for "widgets" alone, but while optimizing ( off-page ) your page for these keyphrases, you'll be also optimizing for "widgets" alone.

I think I get your point now. Thanks. We are targeting more then one word key terms. Generally at least 2 words but in more cases, long tail (3+) for better and more specific traffic. Can I be harping too much on the refreshing of the content? Am I possibly putting too much emphasis on that when I should focus more on building links? I am very confused with this concept it appears. We usually tweak the content as well for both the users and SE's based on what keywords we start targeting. It just isnt clicking.... grrrrrrr

Content refreshing of a website means adding new content ( pages ) to the site, not just changing existing content on a page with new content.

To get this straight, when we get a blog, will that count for our content refreshing? Will we still need to change up the content on the top level pages of the shopping cart? Do we need to change keywords up or should we build up to the competitive terms and then stick with them? Sorry I misunderstood such a simple concept.