Couple of SEO questions that always bugged me

[Josiah Staggs]

1. When choosing anchor text to build backlinks, does "trade baseball cards" help me with my ranking towards "baseball cards" and the other way around? Or are they considered completely separate?

2. In a site title, does "myspace profile layouts" help me rank the same for "myspace layouts" as if i were to just go with"myspace layouts" as the title?

[Terry Kyle]

Hey J,

From my personal experience, stick to the EXACT keywords and backlink the hell out of them.

[intelinside]

Yes, it is better to use the exact keywords but it is also advisable to use variations in your Anchor Texts / Titles but append your exact word before the auxiliary one.

[Adam H]

Personally I think it does help because it shows variation and looks more natural , if you have aload of anchor text all saying the same thing it shows its unnatural.

I also believe it will help you in the long run , 6 months to a year down the line it may possibly give you authority in the longer tail keywords.

[Smokey_Joe]

IMO you have to work for each keyword combination specifically, the three-component term being more specific and the two-component one tougher to target... Same goes for the singular/plural.

[Steven Heron]

Yes, you need to target specific combinations, but building up authority under long-tail phrases will also build your authority for the individual keywords within the phrase as well, just to a lesser degree.

[banker0679]

1. Separate

2. Yes

it works on your site which needs to be rich with content
your anchor text needs to be precise

if you're able to use any anchor text or variations of it...or use long sentences in the anchor text then why not use a whole paragraph as the anchor text?

rule of thumb is
if the keyword on your page is
fast remote control cars
then your anchor text should be
fast remote control cars
not
remote control cars that are fast
or
fast control remote cars

2nd rule of thumb is
make sure the keyword you are using for your anchor text is found somewhere on your page or title tag.....at least 1 time. Otherwise you just make it harder for your site to rank

Originally Posted by Josiah Staggs

1. When choosing anchor text to build backlinks, does "trade baseball cards" help me with my ranking towards "baseball cards" and the other way around? Or are they considered completely separate?

2. In a site title, does "myspace profile layouts" help me rank the same for "myspace layouts" as if i were to just go with"myspace layouts" as the title?

[Josiah Staggs]

Got it, thanks guys.

[rath]

Originally Posted by Josiah Staggs

1. When choosing anchor text to build backlinks, does "trade baseball cards" help me with my ranking towards "baseball cards" and the other way around? Or are they considered completely separate?

2. In a site title, does "myspace profile layouts" help me rank the same for "myspace layouts" as if i were to just go with"myspace layouts" as the title?

Hi Josiah !

When choosing your anchor text, it's advisable to start with long tail keys with the same primary key suffixes. One, it is easier to increase your SERP for these long tail keys and at the same time lends some weight to the primary keys as well. If you rank higher for multiple three word phrases each having your primary seed key included in it, there is a spill-over and may enhance your rankings for the seed key as well.

I have seen this happen on many occasions across niches.

Keep on checking your AIA as it is often considered to be a lead indicator for search rankings.

Best ;-)


Jay

[AlexTampa]

using exact phrases in anchors can end up with a phrase based penalty if you overuse it.
This is the year that google is focusing more, and more on natural linking.

[Natheen2000]

Regarding the anchor text, you have to get the backlinks for EXACT pharse. If you get backlinks for "AB CD", that will not help for "AB". It is treated as totally different.

Regarding the title, If you can have the keyword in title at least one time, that is fine. For an example for a keyword (Say "AB"), your title can be "AB CD" or "AB"

[hipnol]

Originally Posted by Josiah Staggs

1. When choosing anchor text to build backlinks, does "trade baseball cards" help me with my ranking towards "baseball cards" and the other way around? Or are they considered completely separate?

2. In a site title, does "myspace profile layouts" help me rank the same for "myspace layouts" as if i were to just go with"myspace layouts" as the title?

All that depends on competition and the authority you gain. If you have authroity, then it is possible to rank high though a slight mismatch is found in title.

[banker0679]

I dont see that in any writing

Care to supply any articles about this?

There are a lot of ppl doing this, and doesn't seem to impact anyone.
For Google to view everyone who is doing this will take a LOT OF RESOURCES!

Originally Posted by AlexTampa

using exact phrases in anchors can end up with a phrase based penalty if you overuse it.
This is the year that google is focusing more, and more on natural linking.

[peter gibson]

Originally Posted by AlexTampa

using exact phrases in anchors can end up with a phrase based penalty if you overuse it.
This is the year that google is focusing more, and more on natural linking.

Errr... ummm... please excuse, but woud you care to base this within some form of reality? Article? Point of reference? Any kind of link to any authority site that makes this - rather comical - assertion? Because what you just said is, from my experience, blatantly false.