How to choose the best keywords to target for organic search?

What are the best measurements to use for choosing keywords to target for SEO?

For a site that deals with online advertising:
1. should I use keywords with a high search volume such as "internet advertising", "online advertising"? it would be difficult to attain high results for these keywords. On the other hand, it would really pay off if successful.

2. should I go for a keyword such as "contextual advertising"? this one has a much lower search volume.
How do you choose your keywords?

 

Honestly it is all about conversions. I first started off going for the search volume words also. I was using Adwords because getting to the top in SERPs can take years.

I found, at least in my industry, more targeted keywords have higher converstion rates. This might not apply to you since your selling a service, and I am selling an exact product.

I would also think in your industry your going to have a really nice webpage, that does well in SERPs, and has a good PR. Going to be hard to sell advertising if your not good at it yourself.

just my 2 cents

 

Targetted keywords always help in long run but the competition is very hard and a lot of hard work is required to reach top .

 

yes i agree with supercops it is very hard but its absolutely worth it to have targeted keywords.

 

Targeted keywords are extremely important- but should they have a very high search volume? Does that make them less targeted?

 

Target the "Targeted Keywords" and work around the less competition words.