A user on the Cre8asite Forums says that he has been trying to rank for a specific keyword on Google but is currently competing with numerous .gov websites. He writes:
when i search for their terms in google the first four pages are government websites, i didn't even bother to go deeper... can i rank higher than government websites? they seem to have taken over google for the search terms i need and i'm concerned.
Moderator EGOL says that you should have a clear strategy and know your competition:
You can beat .gov sites... but check their backlinks to get some idea what you are up against.
How can you do this? Bill Slawski, forum administrator, says:
You may want to avoid a head-to-head confrontation on some of the more competitive keywords, and look for opportunities to rank for keywords that they missed. While that may mean targeting some less competitive keywords, if it brings you the audience that you are looking for, that should be fine.
Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.