Question Re Cornerestone Page And Anchor Text For Internal/External Links

[Humanovation]

Suppose I create a cornerstone page with the targeted keyword "Dog Collars".  I write a dozen articles on various dog collars and point a link from each article to my cornerstone page.  Should the anchor text  for the links from each of those articles to the cornerstone page be "Dog Collars" or should they vary, but still be relevant to "Dog Collars" for best SEO?  Should half of them be "Dog Collars" and the other half various?  Also, if I have 12 articles and all of the anchor text is already "Dog Collars", should I go back and change them so that they all don't say the same thing?

If hope my question makes sense ... thanks in advance.  I will give thumbs up for helpful responses and suggestions

[DrewR]

I'm new and this is my first response, but I believe your answer is as follows for proper anchor text:

20-30% desired keyword - "dog collars"

10-20% keyword alternatives - "pet collar" and the like

30% brand - "Pets R Us"

30% generic - "click here" "website" etc...

[Chris.Menke]

Let the page and meta  data do the talking for relevance and your off-page references do the talking for authority.  If I was spending resources on "dog collars", I'd be looking at more than just written content and I'd be looking at how to get it hosted offsite, at locations where it would be able to generate signals of engagement--ideally from social profiles already that are already involved with anything that's thematically relevant. I'd also be concentrating on authorship and how to strengthen it's application to your brand from off-site.

If you're able to do those things with one or two pieces of content, the impact is going to be as strong or stronger than your 12 anchor text laden links--especially when you consider that Google is moving towards de-weighting the value of anchor text and keywords as a ranking factor.

In direct answer to your question, I  think Drew gave a pretty good response but I'd reverse the percentage of "desired keywords" and "keyword alternatives" and I'd up the percentage of brand links a bit, while lowering the generic.

[Humanovation]

Thanks Chris!  One clarification ... when you say that you would be looking at "more than just written content", what specifically do you mean?  What other type of content would you employ?

Thanks

[Humanovation]

Thanks Drew

[Chris.Menke]

Such as video  (maybe a comparison of the pros and cons/features/styles/uses/quality of a variety of different collars), audio (interviews with retailers/veterinarians about what which ones they recommend/or sell the most) press release (maybe on a recall/particular new style/your investment in technology for 3D printing of dog collars)--that kind of thing.