IM really stumped.. please any advise would help

optimizing, anchor text and google stopped doing it now?

[crimsonblack]

I noticed last year if you typed in

Best credit cards

or

Best credit cards online

you would find the first 20 listings ( 2 pages) most of the sites listed would have the phrase

best credit cards or best credit cards online in the top title

now since januarry.. no sites in the top 10 have that phrase... the reason I ask is i used to have the #1 spot for best credit cards and #2 spot for best credit cards online

it was fairly simple.. just a case of having all my link exchange partners have the word

best credit cards or best credit cards online as my ANCHOR text..

BUt now.. i see that noone is listed there for that.. it makes me wonder if google has thrown out the window giving preference to sites with the KEYWORD in the title?

basically something seriously has changed and now im at a loss as to know should i be putting my keyword phrase in my title? right at the start of the title? and linking back using anchor text i want to be ranked for? or has all that changed?

i mean google obviously is ranking people now.. not for title phrase.. so what are they ranking people for?

any help advise appreciated

im just not sure if i should be filling my title with keywords or wether it should be a actually sentence. so its not optmized? plus should i be using my anchor text anymore in my link

thanks

[monkeythumpa]

Were you banned for some reason?