I have optimized my site for SEO by using the google adwords keyword tool and putting in descriptive words in the meta description. My question is what number should i target when i pick my key words, i have been picking under 1000 for the search volume and a medium to low advertiser competition. It does not seem like i get much better results though. Am i doing something wrong? Should i target a higher search volume? Thanks in advance for your help.
The advertiser competition only refers to how many people are paying for ppc on that keyword. So don't rely on that. As for search volume, you should analyze the competition for those keywords instead of just picking keywords based on search volume. You should be checking how many links the top ranked sites have and how good those links are. You should also check how they are using that keyword on their page and in their links. Don't expect to move up in the rankings simply by adding more keywords to your page content or meta tags. That is not how rankings work. To improve rankings, you need more links, especially ones that use that keyword as link anchor text. You may also get extra boosts if you get links from pages that use that keyword in their url, title or page content.