Linking

[Schuchert]

I am sorry if this has been asked before but I could not find an answer with the search tool. I read your tutorial and am confused on how to do page to page linking within the same site.

If you are putting a few phrases on your index page but then want to target a new phrase on another page on the site, do you penalize the index page by adding a link to the next page with a title in that anchor tag?

BTW, your tutorial seems to be the most legit way to handle seo yet. Most of the old techniques I have read and tried have been more spam that optimization.

[discount hotels]

There will be no penalty. It's just that the page targeted will not receive as much PR from that page.
The more links you have on 1 page, the less PR that page can transfer to another.
But i think the anchor text still gets good value.

[Schuchert]

So on my index page should use my index page phrases in the titles of the links or use the phrases that pertain to the page it is linking to. :confused:

[jocelyn]

Your title, H1... are the ones that will define more your homepage.
Links to other page will give anchor text power to the linked pages.
Words in links on your home will count and if the page has 100 words and you add a link with 10 well... density went down a bit.
You should aim at the most important words on you homepage.
In order to minimise the density loss... I used a menu with links of 1 word.