Is SE results affecting your SEO strategy?

[FatToni]

What I'd like to know is whether you change your SEO strategy depenging how well you rank on Google.

For example what do you do when you are starting and trying to get TOP5 with certain keywords and what do you do when you are there in TOP5?

-Toni

[Josh]

Once I get on top I only slightly alter my seo. Basically just focus more on a wider range of the main KW variations. For instance, if I rank #1 for "online poker keyword" I will focus a little less on getting anchor text that exactly matches and more on variations like "poker keywords", "poker online keywords", "best poker keywords"..ect. Thats probably not the best example but hopefully you get what I'm saying. Of course I still seo for the main phrase but I try to broaden it out a little more than I did before. This way I am maintaining my ranking while improving my ranking for variations of my main kw.

I just thought of a better example. I rank #2 for 7 card stud. I'm focusing a little less on getting links with the anchor text "7 card stud" and a little more on links with "stud poker", "seven card poker", "seven stud"...ect.

[MPC]

1. So if you did optimize your page for "online poker keyword" and now you start linking to it with "best poker keyword", do you just leave the page as is or do you modify it to include "best poker keyword".

2. If so, then does replacing some instances of "online poker keyword" with "best poker keyword" affect the existing SERP for "online poker keyword"?