Lets say we researched and found: African Black Cats as a highly searched term but also found it highly competitive and maybe too tough to tackle with upstart site (Just an example, never looked it up) We also found Black African Cats to be in top ten for searches but far less competitive. Would the site be listed under each term (obviously position being VERY different) since the words are the same but the order different? If I got in top 5 say for second term, would it be beneficial to try to switch to higher term later down the road when the site got more popular. (Read Google trusted)? I have found an example of this in one of the sites I have started and would like to SEO for second phrase till I get higher up and then switch to more competitive( but higher monthly searched) term later on.
The thing is that if the KW is competitive then it will take a lot to list with both. An other thing you need to remember is that when you optimize for a KW, it's important that they appear together like this: Black Cats, and not Black bla bla bla Cats...
Google will treat black african cats as 3 keywords, not 1. And the order is depended on users' custom, some people like back africn cats, while others like african black cats.