Anchor text for internal links

[diogenes]

there has been a lof of discussion on this forum and elsewhere about over optimized anchor text, partial match anchor text vs exact anchor text match, etc. I am wondering iwhether or not exact anchor text matches are good or bad for internal links?

Does anyone have anythoughts, or better, any studies?

Paul

[RyanKent]

Each website page should ideally be optimized for one keyword or phrase. You can add additional phrases, but each additional dilutes your efforts.

If you have a page which has a clear focus (i.e. "diabetes") then the page's URL, title, header should all include that term. When that term is used elsewhere on your site, it is perfectly acceptable and preferable imo to use anchor text linking to the main page which discusses this topic.

You asked about studies and I don't have one, but I do have an example: wikipedia. Most every SEO and website owner looks to wikipedia with envy as they are the #7 ranked site in terms of traffic, and overall the highest ranked site for any random topic. They use a consistent text match for internal links.

The wiki site does have a diabetes page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_mellitus

Notice any and every time the term "diabetes melitus" is used throughout the wiki site, the exact same phrase match is used. Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin