Have you heard the joke about two hikers walking through the woods? They suddenly notice that off in the distance, there is a bear charging. One hiker grabs a pair of tennis shoes out of his knap sack and as he starts to put them on, the other hiker exclaims in amazement “surely you don’t think you can outrun that bear?” The other hiker replies, “no just have to outrun you”.

SEO is a lot like that story; ranking is graded on a curve. There is not a universal standard benchmark that you have to exceed; you just have to beat your competition. That is why analyzing your competitive situation is so critical if you are going to be successful in getting your site ranked. 

Each keyword expression has its own competitive situation.  The competitive situation determines the actions you need to take.   Sometimes the competition is so extreme that going after a keyword would be futile, other times you may find good keywords that have relatively little competition.  This is why keyword research is the most important factor in good SEO. Find the right keywords where you can beat your competition.