Best way to build links and target my keywords

Question

Lest say I want to target "used cars" (i know, i know, tough keyword, etc... but this is for the sake of an example)

Using google keywords webmaster tools, I have a list of keywords: They are exact phrases and the number is total searches.

[used cars for sale] 201000
[used cars ni] 110000
[used car] 74000
[used car prices] 60500
[used cars for sale by owner] 49500
[used car values] 49500
[used car sales] 27100
[buy used cars] 27100
[used car parts] 27100
[cheap used cars] 22200
[used cars uk] 22200
[used cars for sale uk] 22200
[best used cars] 18100
[japanese used cars] 18100
[used car search] 14800
[used car dealers] 14800
[parkers guide to used cars] 14800
[used car dealerships] 14800
[parkers used car prices] 12100
[used cars usa] 12100
[used cars ireland] 12100
[used car value] 12100
[kbb used cars] 9900
[used car for sale] 9900

If you were me, what would you do?

1. Build trades with all the anchors, and after some time wait for the website to rank for some of them? This is in conjunction to a post I read about a seochat member talking about searching patterns and that is best to target a wide variety of anchors... eventually you will start ranking for lots of keyword combinations. This way the site also obtains a natural linking profile, especially combining with url only anchors, click here, etc.

2. This is what I am inclined to do: Get the easiest keyword, least competitive. I haven-t done any competition study but lets assume for the sake of the example that the least competitive term is the one with the least number of searches, used car for sale. Build links only with this keyword but add some buffer words for keyword diversity like: UK used car for sale, best used car for sale, buy used car for sale - many of the buffer words being extracted from other searches above. Wait until I reach good position in serps and then move to another search term and so on.

Which method do you think is best? More importantly how would you do it?

Answer 1

1. Don't trade links. Besides the fact that those links have virtually no value, you run the risk of linking to a bad neighborhood. Doing so can mean your site being penalized or banned.

2. Quality links are earned and not requested. So you really won't have any direct control over the anchor text of those links. You can attempt to influence the anchor text of those links with good page titles as they are what is most commonly used as anchor text in links.

3. Targeting easier keywords (i.e. those not searched for frequently) is a good idea when getting a website started for three reasons: 1. you can achieve good rankings relatively quickly 2. Your traffic is very targeted. This can be a great way to find other webmasters who are looking for quality content to link to. 3. You can rank well for more then one keyword or phrase and by targeting easier keywords you are also optimizing for more general keywords as well as they are going to be present in your content.