Branded vs non branded keyword question

[shiftins]

I have been doing a lot of research about my competitors on open site explorer and have come to see that most of them are getting a high percentage of links from branded anchor text. It is almost to the point where they are not even using any keyword terms as anchor text. I have a few questions:

1. why are they doing this

2.. how are they ranking for keyword terms when I cannot find any anchor text in their link profile that reflects their target keywords.

3. is it better for me to focus on building branded anchor text keywords than to do exact match keyword terms especially after the panda update

4. if it is better for me to focus on branded anchor text only, how do i rank for keyword terms?

[BenFox]

1. It could be natural link growth. Often when a webmaster links to you they will do so using your brand name or a URL.

2. All links to a domain increase the domain authority.  It could be that they have strong domains which outweigh the need to have exact match anchor text. This is especially true if they're big brands- think about how Amazon ranks for so many products without actually having links to those product pages.

3. That's a strategic decision that varies depending on your site's circumstances. New site with no links = build branded anchor text. Old site with lots of branded anchor text already = build some exact match anchor text (but not too much obviously).

4. Focus on branded anchor text BUT throw some love at your product pages occasionally as well. You'll probably be able to drive some long tail traffic just by virtue of having unique content on the page and as your domain authority grows this will not only increase long tail traffic but also rankings for those exact match term.

[shiftins]

thanks for the response but im curious, I have already been building links using exact match anchor text and have been ranking fairly well forbthose terms. Would building branded anchor text terms help increase my rankings for terms im already going after?

what do you think a good link profile looks like in respect to branded vs non branded anchor txt?

[RuthBurrReedy]

Recently Google has been taking a closer look at anchor text, because exact keyword anchor text isn't really how "natural" links (i.e. links you didn't build) look.  Ben has a great point that natural link growth usually means anchor text that is either your brand name or your URL.  Rob Kerry recently did a Whiteboard Friday on the Penguin update that may shed some more light on your predicament: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-penguin-update-whiteboard-friday

A majority of your inbound links should not have exact keyword match anchor text.  Instead, focus more on building overall link volume, both for your domain and individual pages.  Try to get links from high-authority sites, and create pieces of content that people want to share and link to - these are link building strategies that will be more successful than a hyper-focus on anchor text, whether branded, keyword or "click here."

I think the steps Ben outlines above are a great start.