I run a website that targets the phrase "Poker Forums". I rank page 6 on Google for that key phrase. I rank page 20 on Google for "Poker Forum". Is it MUCH wiser for me to target the keyphrase "Poker Forum" as it will cover "Poker Forums" as well. I've noticed the top ranking sites for "poker forums" are actually targetting "Poker forum". Am I making a huge mistake targetting "Poker Forums"... ? P.s If I change my anchor text and targetting to "Poker Forum" will I see a big drop in my rankings for "Poker Forums" ?
First, which keyword phrase is recieving more traffic? What is the difference in search volume? This should determine which one you target. In theory, you should target both; build backlinks with both anchor text's for those keywords, do a 50\50 build from now on. This can effectively double or triple your organic traffic.
But can I target both by just targetting "poker forum" seeing as "poker forums" has all the letters of "poker forum" in it? "poker forum" is more competetive with more results and more traffic.
You'll need to target both, really "poker forums" targets more to "poker forum", so your actually going to need to build backlinks with the anchor text "poker forums", that will help both keyword phrases. Make sure to build 50\50!
Well, actually plurals are treated differently... The guy will need to do a mixture of both in his anchor text links, description text, and what not.