To remove title keyword in hopes of increasing rank for another term?

Hi guys,

I was wondering what the general conensus is on the importance of combination keyword terms/phrases.

Here are the specifics:
I run a site that offers a service for myspace users. The site's current title is "Free Myspace Profile Tracker" and we seem to be well placed (probably top 5) for the term "myspace profile tracker" on Google. Currently we've set all of our text backlinks to "Free myspace profile tracker" on user pages.

However, the bigger search query by mass is "myspace tracker". My site is placed on the 2nd page, 2nd result for that term. I'd like to get within top 5 for this term instead. But in order to do so, must I change or sacrifice terms in hopes of getting higher?

Should I:
- remove the word "profile" and/or "free" from the title
- remove the above terms from backlinks as well (users create the backlink when they paste our code to their page)

Or perhaps some alternative method? Advice much appreciated. Thank you

Here is what I would do and why... you can decide if it suits you..

I would think... "I've almost accomplished my goal of #1 for "Free Myspace Profile Tracker" and if I get a few more backlinks it will get me even closer. So, I would then change my title tag and a llittle of the onpage optimization to. "Myspace Tracker - Free Profile Tracking" (or something close to that based upon what you think will earn clicks).

I would then have as many of my new backlinks as possible use "Myspace Tracker" as anchor text.

I would not try to get old anchor text changed. Why? Because you do want some variation in anchor text, and it is a lot of work. If you drop a bit for your original term don't worry because your near future links will boost you back.

I agree with EGOL . I would never try to get existing anchor text changed for a page that is ranking well. I would try to get new anchor text for the new phrase. Mixing up anchor text with related phrases helps all of the phrases to some degree, so it will still help your current phrase rank well while building power for the new phrase.

As for on page, given your current good ranings. I would make changes slowly and with measured caution. Again, I think EGOL's suggestion for the title tag makes sense. It keeps all of your keywords present, but changes the order. I would probably make that change alone at do nothing else for a couple week s after it has been cached to see what happens. Then make my next on page move from there.

A seven or 8 word title works well than using a 3 word title. So using a meaning ful title can boost your rankings. In my opinion you can use this for your backlinks also. But you should place your important keyword phrases at the start of the title itself to get more weightage.

Listen to anything that EGOL says as he is an insanely well respected member in the SEO community. I don't post a lot in this forum, but I always come in and search for his posts specifically because they're so informative.

I agree with him also about how to change the keywords you target. Early on in my SEO career, we had a similar situation where the keyword we initially targeted, went from being searched 200,000 times per month to only 10,000 times per month over the course of about a year. So we tried to change what we targeted on our home page, using the method that EGOL mentioned where we didn't ditch the old keyword completely, but we changed the Title tag to more effectively target the new keyword we were going to hit up, but kept verbage in the tag that still kept us strong for our old targets.

The result; we stayed ranked for the old and have been climbing for the more competitive new keyword ever since.