We've been working on our frietjes-keyword for a couple of weeks, now, and we've succeeded in putting them on a 6th position in google. And I haven't even had the time to try to get some incoming links. So basically this confirms what I tell most of my customers: it's all about the content!
The keyword density of frietjes
An important factor in this content is the keyword density. I try to use the word frietjes in a normal context as often as possible. Once or twice a paragraph is usually enough. Mentionning frietjes more often than that would just become unnatural. Not only to the readers, but also to Google. They're quite smart in that.
Keyword relevance
Having a single page about frietjes may have fooled Live-search, but it typically isn't enough for Google. They also take into account that the rest of the site should be relevant for the keyword. So I try to write a blog post about frietjes every now and then. This way, the content stays fresh, and over a period of time the site gains more relevance for our chosen keyword.
Competition
Every time I add a new keyword to our SEO campaigns, I start with an analysis of the competition. If the competition is incredibly strong, I tend to give up quite fast. Why bother with a keyword like "digital asset management" when thousands of sites are trying to compete for it. Not to say that I give up completely. We'll get back to these keywords later on, when our site has gained some respectibility and pagerank. But for Frietjes, things are actually quite easy. After just a few weeks of effort (and honestly, I don't put a lot of time in the frietjes-campaign), we're on the fifth position:
http://www.google.com/search?q=frietjes