Should I vary my anchor text when building links to improve my SERP's. Example: Ive got a freebie site, my main anchor text is "Free Gifts" however this is a very hard keyword to rank for. If I put my anchor text as "Get free gifts" would this still possible rank me for "free gifts"? Also does anyone know any tools that show you the search volume of a paticular keyword. Other than google trends.
It is very recommended to change your anchor text because it will look more naturally. If you will use only one anchor text over and over your risk so called over optimization penalty.
Yes I agree with the comment above. Vary up your link anchor text as much as possible. It looks very spammy to get many links all with the same link anchor text. You should target several phrases and alternate between those phrases for your link anchor text.
I suggest you use google's keyword tool to find other "long tail" variations https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal The niche you are targeting is extremely competitive You would have a much better chance at targeting a key phrase such as 100% free stuff
Yh there is a chance of getting rank for each word and also all possible combination of its like free gift, free gifts, gifts, get free etc....
Yes, you may still rank for "free gifts" but your ranking may be low since "free gifts" and "get free gifts" are differently recognized by search engines.
Dont forget to also alternate the surrounding text around your anchor text, perhaps your site defintion when you submit to directory. This will make your link building campaign more natural in the eyes of SE.
yea man mix it up... try and mess with the free bit... like put it through your ms word theasurus and use words that hover round it... yea google analytics will help you map certain trends but the software ive used in the past is from fish trend fish or somwething like that... had something to do with fish... defo mis it up on ya anchor texts... use . and - to separate words so the spider separates them easily and can distinguish what words ur using faster... always surround them with new content and spread em out... good luck x
The more you vary your anchor text the more natural your links look so they naturally carry more weight if they look less like spam links..
basically if you use the same anchor text to all of your site and to the root of your site they will be devalued. You need to mix them up