Indeed, I sometimes wonder
whether keyword selection still deserves to be a top seven SEM technique, since the search engines continue to ramp up their broad matching technology (see, for example, Google's recent «advanced broad match» announcement and Yahoo's new terms and conditions which allow them to optimize your accounts for you), making it more and more difficult to find keywords where your competitors are not.
Although
keyword selection is a significant factor in
whether an SEO campaign will be successful, ranking high for a
keyword that doesn't connect to your website content is worthless.