Thanks a lot for the info, really helpful.
Could anyone recommend any SEO services on BHW that apply similar ideas?
I have a fairly new site (under 4 months) which is in quite a small niche, I've invested a lot of time into it. It's a niche I'm passionate about and have done extensive keyword research but only now getting into the link building process. It would be heartbreaking to over SEO it and get penalised by Google so really want a more subtle service, no automated xrumer stuff etc.
Ben
Yeah, the so the biggest thing you should concentrate on is anchor text diversification (de-optimization)...what do I mean by de-optimization, use naked urls, like
http://mysite.com and random anchors such as "click here" "visit site" etc...
Winchester gives a breakdown of how your anchor text should be broken down in the original post in this thread and its a good breakdown and I see a number of other people who have similar breakdowns to his...
I will go a step further and recommend this:
25% brand name anchor text (if you have one), so if your company was Amazon, you would focus on anchors like "Amazon" "Amazon.com" etc...
25% naked urls, (as described above), and/or random text like "click here" "visit site"
25% exact match anchor text
25% exact match anchor text + other words (for example, "visit Amazon to purchase the latest Harry Potter Book")
Have I proved these percentages are the best? No, this is just my best guess. Winchester's percentages for breakdown of anchor text are very good and I think if you were somewhere between his percentages and the percentages presented above, you should be alright with diversification (de-optimization)...