Could 2 links in the top 40 dilute my main key phrase page?

[lk125]

I have been trying unsuccesfully for months to crack the top 10 for a fairly competitive key phrase. I have a higher site PR than some of the sites in the top 10, much more content than all but 1 and I even have 2 links to my site from another site in the top 10 of this key phrase.

As of this month's update, I now have a link to the key phrase page on page 3 of the search and a link to my home page on page 4 of the search. For the last few months it has just been my home page that came up with a search of the key phrase and last month it was on page 2 of the search.

Could having 2 links in the top 40 somehow have an adverse effect on one of the links to the main key phrase page? As I stated above, I can't understand what keeps me from cracking the top 10 when I have much more to offer than 9 of the 10 sites. 1 of the sites is even just one page with a paragraph.

[MHes]

Hi
Could it all be down to the anchor text in the 'links in' to the other sites?
If the search phrase you are targeting is the exact phrase used in the linked text by the other sites, both internally and by external sites, then perhaps that is why they are doing well.
This can happen as a result of their domain name being used as anchor text or just very good quality links in!

Just a thought....

[lk125]

No I have more external links than all except one of the sites. And I have gone through all of the sites, and for the same external links that we did not share, I replicated those links as well with similar anchor text.

[ciml]

I think MHes means links from other sites, not to other sites. The anchor text in those links is very important, epecially for search phrases where the top listings have high PageRank.

I'm sure that having extra pages doing well in the results is going to harm you at all.

[lk125]

Yes that is what I was referring to as well; external links from other sites to my site. I have basically the same links as everyone else in the top 10 with similar anchor text referring to the keyword, and in all cases except for the number one site, I have more links from other sites.

This was never really a concern. I was just wondering if the 2 links in the top 40 would have some sort of dilutive effect on one another.

[MHes]

Hi
Sorry lk125, I was not very clear.

Basically get some other sites with pr4 or more to link to you with the searchphrase you are targeting (if possible!)

The ideal is <a href="http://www.yoursite.com >Your keyword phrase</a> - Your site description

[lk125]

Yes that is what I have done. We have the same links with the same anchor text coming from external sites as all of the other companies in the top 10, and in every case except one we have more external links.

The sites for this particular key phrase are basically standard for the industry so all the sites for the most part have the same links from other sites.