Lack of keyword targetting

[AsadMemon]

Consider a scenario where a website has a considerably higher no. of back links than its competitors along with a greater Domain Authority, Mozrank etc. The only thing missing is keyword targeting. In such a case, rather than trying to build new links with keyword rich anchor text, wouldn't it be better to first focusing on changing the anchor text of the links that are already pointing to the website? How much impact would this have on its rankings? If the gap in back links, and the "value" of the back links is far greater than its competitors wouldn't this in itself help to change things around drastically?

[lavellester]

Hi,

Where does the site currently ranks in comparison to competitors?  Do the existing links to your site contain the website name/URL? How many backlinks are you considering changing?  How many keywords?

To go back and change the anchor text of all back links will look unnatural.  I'd lean towards identifying a few existing backlinks from sites with high mR/mT etc and changing the anchor text on these while also focusing on building new links from high mR/mT sites.

[AsadMemon]

Ranking for what? The website is not targeting any keywords whatsoever. All backlinks are using the company name or website url. The website has a lot of backlinks from high PR websites and in many cases we have control over changing the anchor text as most of the back links are from partners/clients.

[lavellester]

But as far as your onsite efforts go are you targeting keywords e.g. are your pages optimised?  If not then I'd recommend doing this first before changing any anchor text.

Beyond this I would start slowly only changing  few existing backlinks from sites with high mR/mT etc and changing the anchor text on these while also focusing on building new links from high mR/mT sites.