Optimizing Backlinks

an age old question

[William8322]

I'm working on trying to get my site to rank for one main keyword. Would it be smart to go back and optimize my old backlinks with the anchortext I want? Or will these links lose "power" when they are changed?

Basically, how important of a factor is link age? And does age get "reset" if the link is changed at all?

[marodhum]

First of all, how will you change the anchor text, if the links are on separate independent sites.

If some webmasters allow you to do so...

>> will these links lose "power" <<
Do not think so, so long the page keep its rank, where your links are listed.

Never heard anything about link age, though some search engines don't show it, links help from the begining only, after the SE robots crawl that page. Atleast, that goes from my limited knowledge.
As

[William8322]

These are sites that I have already contacted for a link, or that have linked to us independently. I will simply email them and request they revise the anchortext to the exact phrase that I am trying to optimize for.

I've heard stories that an older link has more "power" than a new link that has just been indexed. It shows that the site is more trusted over time. Not only that, but I've also heard that new links take time to boost rankings - as an "anti-seo" measure from google. Of course, this all could be a farse. But it makes sense...

[marodhum]

Regarding new links... what i know for sure is acquiring them too fast... might look spammy in SE's. And when you change the anchor text, it may be count as a new link. So my suggestion is go slow.. change a few at a time and wait.
Good luck to you.
As

[William8322]

Thats the question. If I change the link at all, will it be considered a "new link"? Does anyone have any experience with this?

And, does anyone have any insight on how link age affects the "strength" of the link?

[buckworks]

I will simply email them and request they revise the anchortext to the exact phrase

Not recommended. That's a good way to lose links, because such requests can be very annoying.

It would be more productive to just work on getting new links that have the anchor text you want.

Change the anchor text of links that are within your own control, and work on cultivating new links, but leave other existing links alone.

Make sure your on-page optimization is in good order... lean, clean code, logical semantic markup, good source code ordering, sensible use of target key phrases in the textual content.

[piatkow]

I would action a request if X had changed its name to Y but I a request to alter text from my site's standard layout would at best be ignored.