Here's the dilemma I'm in: I'm writing a blog that has a bunch of different sub sections...sub niches of the main niche blog. When trading links with other blogs/sites and submitting to relevant directories... Since anchor text is very important when link building, should I be using the more competitive keyword phrases since it's going to be linking to my main domain rather then a specific post or the less competitive terms. here's a example. Say that I'm building a blog site about cars. I'll be making posts about different car brands [ford, gm, toyota, etc.] Should I use the keyword: "Cars" when I'm submitting to directories and link trading since the link will be going to the domain root? Or should I use less competitive terms such as "Ford Cars" or "GM cars" (even though the main site isn't about Ford Cars or GM Cars? I like to also note that I will only be making 1 or 2 posts about that certain topic. So I'll only be making 1 or 2 posts about "Ford Cars" or "Gm cars". I understand that when linking to a specific post, I can use a more targeted keyword such as "ford Cards' or "GM cars" But who links to specific posts when trading? Another question I have Will targeting a lot of these keyword terms dilute my PR? even though they are some how related to my site?
My vote is less specific. It is unlikely you will recieve much benefit from such a competitive word as "cars" however just a few links with niche phrases can sometimes get you high enough to recieve some traffic. Second Question. If they are related they will have a tendency to reinforce each other. Giving you a more rounded out set of phrases you will rank for. But try to keep all of your incoming link text related.
hmmm, maybe I'm using the wrong vocabulary. What I meant is when I'm trading links with people should I use a broad keyword or more narrow one? Going with my car blog example, should I be using "cars" in the anchor text or "ford cars?" Since "cars" is in the keyword phrase "ford cars," would that mean it is better to use "ford cars" then? Here's another example, say that the blog is about prime time tv shows. I'm only going to make 1 post about the show "Prison Break"...I wouldn't be using "Prison Break" as the anchor test instead of "Prime TV Shows"...right? Even though Prison Break is related to my blog and has less competition (and lots of SERPS) (hypothetical) for my main blog. Say that I do use "Prison Break" as my anchor text, would it be a bad idea to use that if only 1 post is about Prison Break if I'm getting direct link traffic (I would think so)? Where do you draw the line when choosing anchor text...tailor for the surfers or the SEO?
Especially when you have a choice, like when you are doing link trades, you want to have your link text related. I'm not just talking about being related to the individual blog post, but also related to other link text campains you have done.. If you are writting about loosly related subjects than part of the link text should relate to the overal theme of the blog site. You want the link text to also relate to the page, however if you do not talk on this subject often then add site related terms. With your new example I would use the text "Prime TV Prison Break". This is making the assumption that the overall theme of your site is "Prime TV" . If you are going to be able to get a lot of trades to this individual post than I might make some of them just "Prison Break", but probably not many. This way your link text enforces the these of your site as well as the individual pages theme.