I have the option of a backlink, what should I choose?

Should I use the same backlink or a new one?

[bouncybunny]

Someone has offered to give me a free one-way link to my website and has asked me what words to put in the link.

There are numerous variations of relevent text that I could suggest. But more specifically, all things being equal;

1. Should I ask for a keyphrase that I already rank well for, so as to reinforce my positioning, or push my site higher up page 1 of Google?

Or

2. Should I use a keyphrase that I do not currently get onto page 1 of Google with, or is this a waste?

Thoughts, comments, discussions...?

[briggidere]

How much value do you see this link having? Is it one that could help you get from page 3 to page one, all on it's own, or would you need a lot more work to achieve it.

Personally, i can't really answer it accurately, not knowing the phrases and positions, but i would possibly try to reinforce the already ranked listing to try to push it up a bit more.

Just my opinion

[JohnRoy]

> Someone has offered to give me a free one-way link to my website.

Free. Hmm...
What do you or your site give back?
Good Content? (- and they asked how to link?!?!?!)

[bouncybunny]

Thanks for the reply briggidere

How much value do you see this link having?

Hard to answer of course, but it's an authority site in its own (very) small niche and the link would be to my site which provides services to that small niche (amongst others).

JohnRoy, I don't really understand your post at all, could you perhaps rephrase it? Thanks.

[mini]

i guess from your first post of this thread that your site is not among the first few in google...i think you should go for the one which you have already ranked well(but not the first few). Its because attaining position in the first 1-5 positions is very important and matters a lot.

And now let us come to the other keyphrase.....find out how competitive this keyphrase is....Will it bring good amount of visitors? You can also do a keyword analysis with tools like wordtracker which tells you how % of internet users look out for info with that KW/KP. If the KW/KP is competitive, then it will bring visitors to your site if you rank well. And yes, for this new KW/KP only having it in one of your incoming links won't do.....you have to do other things as well....like putting it in title,keyword,and description tags, in external links, etc.

Hope this will help.........

[bouncybunny]

Thanks mini

Actually, I should have been more specific in my first post. My site does rank extremely well in Google for a some relevant key-phrases. It is on the first page for about 5, let's say, and second page for 2 or 3.

There are about 3 or 4 phrases that it doesn't rank for at all.

Of the phrases that it ranks for on the first page of Google's SERPs a couple are second from bottom and the others are in the middle to top.

So, and I suppose I am broadening my question out somewhat now, all things being equal, would it be of more benefit to;

1. concentrate on the phrases that don't rank at all?
2. concentrate on getting the bottom of the first page phrases up to the top?
3. try to strengthen the middle of the page/top results?

[bunltd]

So, and I suppose I am broadening my question out somewhat now, all things being equal, would it be of more benefit to;

1. concentrate on the phrases that don't rank at all?
2. concentrate on getting the bottom of the first page phrases up to the top?
3. try to strengthen the middle of the page/top results?

Which phrases make more $$? Those that get more traffic don't always convert as well - so pick the one that converts the best and makes more for your bottom line.

LisaB

[buckworks]

Is there any overlap between any of those phrases you could take advantage of to get more mileage from the same link?

For example, if your strongest phrase is "bunny slippers" you could ask for a link with anchor text something like "fuzzy bunny slippers" that could support an extra word combination as well as your main target phrase.

The power of that would vary depending what other links you already had, and also the optimization on the page itself.

Another thought: Is there one of your own target phrases that would give an extra boost to the page that was linking to you?

If I had a page about fuzzy pink widgets, a link to "fuzzy pink bunny slippers" would give some support to my own SEO as well as yours, more than I could get from just linking to "bunny slippers".

If the site owner who is linking to you sees some benefit at his/her end too, that improves the chance that the link will be long-lasting. The most stable links are win-win at both ends.

Don't get tooo uptight about this, because the more links you get, the less you need to worry about the wording of any one link in particular.

[bouncybunny]

Thanks for all the thoughts folks.

[jdMorgan]

> ... it's an authority site in its own (very) small niche and the link would be to my site which provides services to that small niche.

In that case, a phrase that is relevant to both of your sites; One that reinforces that site's authority and matches your landing page as well...

Jim

[bouncybunny]

Actually, jdMorgan, that's interesting in that I hadn't considered my landing page.

One of my pages is devoted broadly to this organisation's niche, so perhaps I should ask for a 'deep link' to that page, rather than to my home page?