Our Link Directory made it to number two on Google...

.. for the keyword "targeted backlinks"! I'm just elated seeing a lot of hard work paying off

Our directory used to be #1 for "targeted link backs" but had second thoughts and instead wanted to rank for the other keyword which is more likely to be searched. I did a little experiment on forums and sure enough, I was able to attain the ranking I wanted (without changing any onpage factor). Though its not a major keyword, but hoping to get the same results the next time I try it for some major keywords in our niche.

This proves that forum participation have value in SERP.

Also ranking good on Yahoo for the same keyword

Cheers!

congrates....
lol mind explaining what you did on the forums

i just went through my site and updated every image with alt and title tags using my keywords...now just waiting to see what that does for my site's ranking...it had been on the #5 spot for a while but now i'm back to the #7 spot again....so hopefully this time i'll get up to the 3rd spot i seriously doubt i'll get #1 or #2 since those 2 sites have been around for a long while and are the leaders for foamy the squirrel lol one being the creators site and the other the most popular forum.....

That is a great news. The hardwork you did is clearly reflecting on the total search result number: 319,000.

I like to know about the number of clicks you getting from google for this keyword, and the search engine traffic per month..

Traffic was good, minimal but good and converting. We get about 2 to 5 sign-ups in our directory.

But we are not ranking for that now, as we are targeting more popular keywords in our niche

Just tried experimenting on the impact of forum sigs on SERP. Such ranking was achieved purely on offpage factors - particularly from forum sig backlinks

Ranking now for pr4 link, pr4 link directory, etc. Trying hard to rank for "link directory" - but its really a long shot. I think we are on the 20th page currently.

I think some people don't appreciate search result rankings when they're not in the first few pages.
I set my google search to 100 results per page, and I'm willing to bet people that know what they're doing (like the kind that would be searching for the terms you target) do the same.
Now days with so many people using blackhat SEO techniques you can't trust the first few results. So what I do is scan the first few results, and yes, if one looks promising, I open it...in a new tab... I don't know how many people do similar, but I'm willing to bet if they know what they are doing they do.
Usually, unless I am searching for an easily answered question, the answer isn't in the first few results. Some times I'll go as far as the third page before I find something that really looks like what I am searching for. That's the 30th page for most people. I don't go to every result most times, only the ones that look the most promising.
That's how I found this forum. I was looking for an adult domain name sale site, because I want to unload a domain name that I really shouldn't have bought, as I have no interest in maintaining an adult site. But I thought it was a good investment.

I think it's best to target the most keywords possible ranked somewhat high than to focus on a few particular ones being the highest. After all, when you combine the people that search for all those different keywords, it's probably more than the one that are trying to target.

About 90% of the search engine visitors like to click on first 20 results. Only those who having some knowledge on SEO or web mastering looks after third page's search. I know that most results shown on first page is only because of its popularity or SEO.

The remaining 10% are very targeted visitors and if they entered on site through search result, they will not leave the site without bookmarking it (like you). That is the positive thing for lower prior results.

I completely agree!
I have found in almost any market, it's not the big ticket items that get you the people, because there are so many people fighting for those big items. It's the little markets that are easier to compete with.
That's what I was trying to say, targeting somewhat high page ranks on 10-20 search results is better than focusing on 1 or 2 specific key searches to get the top. You'll also get combinations you would never expect.

^^ Good points! I am working on several long tail keywords as well. This will help in the over all process of getting organic traffic.

The reason why most would vie for top compatitive keywords in the SERPs is plain and simple - being on the top 3 would definitely give you huge traffic But still, I focus more on conversion from SE traffic. So the actual content would play a vital role as well