Ranking via partial match

[martyc]

If I wanted to rank for "red hot widgets" and my domain was redhot.com, would it be better to obtain backlinks (via "red hot widgets" anchor text) pointing to:

A) redhot.com (homepage)

or

B) redhot.com/widgets

Many thanks.

[RyanKent]

Ideally each page of your site should target one keyword or phrase. Presumably your home page will focus your brand name "Red Hot". Your redhot.com/widgets page will focus "red hot widgets". If this description is accurate for your site, then the backlinks for "red hot widgets" would best applied to your /widgets page.

Keep in mind, natural anchor text varies. It would not be a good idea to have all your links use the same anchor text as it would appear quite unnatural.

[RobertFisher]

Based on your question being what you prefer to rank for KW: "red hot widgets" I would say a variant of B would be best. Assumption 1: Redhot is a descriptor of multiple items - widgets, gidgets, and midgets.

Assumption 2: Redhot.com was not a single product or service offering.

The variant I would use is redhot.com/red-hot-widgets; the reason being that I would have the partial KW in the domain and you would have an exact-match KW in the URL.

In a highly competitive widget market, you could go with widgets.redhot.com and grow the subdomain but you will need links, good anchor text and time. You would be growing widgets as its own domain, links, etc.

With a smaller site and the above assumptions, I would go with redhot.com/red-hot-widgets.com.

[RobertFisher]

Ryan,

the natural anchor text varies or naturally varying anchor text: Other than appearing unnatural or having readability issues, is there any evidence you have seen as to this having an effect on ranking, etc.? Just curious on this.

[martyc]

Thanks for the advice guys.

[martyc]

Interesting about redhot.com/red-hot-widgets vs.redhot.com/widgets.  So the latter will not be considered a closer match and no problem repeating the KWs red & hot?

Robert, regarding assumption 2, if I was trying to rank for hot dog onions and the domain was hotdog.com would the same still apply?

ie. Is hotdogs.com/hot-dog-onions better than hotdogs.com/onions -- hot dogs & hot dog onions being 2 different products?

[RyanKent]

I can't find the perfect quote right now, but I have often read articles were Eric Enge, Matt Cutts and others with a high degree of credibility talked about how unnatural anchor text patterns will likely lead to a (algorithmic) penalty.

Some example articles:

http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/anchor-text.shtml

http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-matt-cutts-061608.shtml

The premise is anchor links are supposed to be independent, and such links will vary naturally if not unduly influenced. When the identical anchor text is used past a certain threshhold, it is clear some extra influence is at work and the links will not have the same value. That influence can include such factors as a widget with specific code, links submitted to 100s of directories, republished articles, standard software created by links, etc.

A natural, independent link has more value then any form of influenced link, and Google does what it can to differentiate them and weight them accordingly.