Mike Moran whom I was on a panel with at SES once talks on the YSM Blog about what he thinks are the three biggest mistakes a newby search marketer can make - focusing on rankings, using the wrong metrics and presenting the wrong offers.

I’d probably add in another to that list:

“4. Not understanding enough about your potential audience/customers in order to properly target your search marketing activity towards the correct ‘finding’ methods and locations they might be using”

While a vast proportion of traffic comes via mainstream keyword search on the major engines, the number of other places people can search, plus verticalisation and socialisation of search experiences is increasing. This means a well planned strategy should now be  incorporating more than just the usual suspects.