Anchor Text in Navigation Menu

[misha7878]

What do you guys think works better.

If I were to have a navigation menu on the side of my website and these were the choices

New York Locksmith
Chicago Locksmith
Los Angeles Locksmith
Miami Locksmith
Portland Locksmith
Houston Locksmith
so on and so on listing the city with the word Locksmith each time


OR

New York
Chicago
Los Angeles
Miami
Portland
Houston
so on and so on just listing the city


Now this is obviously a locksmith site and if you have a side menu with 50 different cities and the word locksmith following it, It begins to look dumb, but from a SEO prospective in the first version with the word locksmith repeated in each anchor text does it help.

the word locksmith will be in the url anyway but not in the anchor text in the second choice. Here is an example

    first choice

<a href="hxxp://alllocks.  com/new-york-locksmith.html">new york locksmith</a>

second choice

<a href="hxxp://alllocks.  com/new-york-locksmith.html">new york</a>

Will this make a difference? Which choice is better? And I'm not talking about keyword density, just strictly of the fact that if I I'm trying to rank a page for new york locksmith and I have an internal link to that page with the exact phrase new york locksmith and not just new york, however I do have it in the whole url that is making the link, which google does parse for keywords.

Again what is better?

[Nathan2525]

Originally Posted by misha7878

What do you guys think works better.

Again what is better?

Hey Misha,

As you know for SEO it would be better to have locksmith in
however these are going to be quite competitive terms so
unless you have a big SEO team then you won't be in the top spot
for them anyway.

If you don't have a big SEO budget you will probably be better
having just the city and then focusing on ranking 5 keywords to
start.

Hope this helps.

PS it also depends on how wide your sidebar is. If it's quite wide then there's no problem putting the whole term in.

[misha7878]

Nathan thanks for the response. Im only giving locksmith as an example. My real terms are not that competitive. I figured putting in the word "LockSmith" each time looks dumb. but you say it helps with seo? How much?

Thanks

BTW Im unable to PM you since my post count is low.

[imintern]

I will go for the full anchor texts. That should help you to theme your site properly. In short, it's better SEOwise. Seems your's is a HTML site. If that is the case then you can consider spry menus (Menu > sub-menus). The sub-menus under the main menu (sub-menus only visible on hovering over the main menu) could be your actual long tail keywords. For example,

New York Locksmith (main menu)
New York Locksmith License (sub-menu)
New York Locksmith Supply (sub-menu)
New York Locksmith School (sub-menu)

[JammerJones]

Originally Posted by misha7878

What do you guys think works better.

If I were to have a navigation menu on the side of my website and these were the choices

New York Locksmith
Chicago Locksmith
Los Angeles Locksmith
Miami Locksmith
Portland Locksmith
Houston Locksmith
so on and so on listing the city with the word Locksmith each time


OR

New York
Chicago
Los Angeles
Miami
Portland
Houston
so on and so on just listing the city

The first option 100%. You're trying to rank for [City Name] Locksmith, not [City Name]. It won't look dumb, it only makes sense that your anchor texts reflect what you're trying to rank for. Not only that, but having all of these Locksmith links in your sidebar will make your pages more relevant by tightening up the theme.

[Nathan2525]

Originally Posted by misha7878

Nathan thanks for the response. Im only giving locksmith as an example. My real terms are not that competitive. I figured putting in the word "LockSmith" each time looks dumb. but you say it helps with seo? How much?

Thanks

BTW Im unable to PM you since my post count is low.

It's you internal linking structure.
(which a lot of people either don't know about or ignore)

If your Home Page is a PR4 website and the keyword you are
trying to rank for is 'New York Locksmith' then you have a PR4 link
going to that page which will boost it up.

[uniquecontentclub]

Don't always think in terms of SEO. While important, you need to also focus on your visitors. What is best for them?

[wileyparksons]

I have a different style in covering this up. If my site is about Locksmith and I have those states as my navigation, the only thing I would make sure is for Google to understand the connection between. In such case, to avoid the dumb part yet to address SEO, I would see to it that Locksmith will be my H1, states will be H2, cities H3 and so on. As with targeting "New York Locksmith" within the website for example, I would have an optional html link of it inserted below each listing, pointing back to the New York category page.

What I am saying is, SEO is not just about targeting links, it's also about on-site architecture.

[misha7878]

Wiley Im not sure I understand,

does "I would have an optional html link of it inserted below each listing" have the full anchor text in it. Meaning New York Locksmith

[wileyparksons]

Originally Posted by misha7878

Wiley Im not sure I understand,

does "I would have an optional html link of it inserted below each listing" have the full anchor text in it. Meaning New York Locksmith

Yes, meaning New York Locksmith, positioned like a signature in a post. Something like "Go back to New York Locksmith main category" where New York Locksmith is a hand coded anchor text link. See how this site is doing it - leafletonline.com/Fontanini-Shepherds/productinfo/23740/

[Bambu]

If the competition is low for the terms you are trying to rank and/or your landing page has a small number of backlinks coming in, you can do away with the locksmith phrase without much damage.

[JammerJones]

Originally Posted by Bambu

If the competition is low for the terms you are trying to rank and/or your landing page has a small number of backlinks coming in, you can do away with the locksmith phrase without much damage.

But the OP is asking which option is BETTER. Why settle for less?