Build links to home page or internal to rank internal pages?
-
I understand that naturally people link to the home page and internal pages - probably the home page more often than not. In order to build a natural looking link profile I also understand that I need a variety of anchor text, brand and url links. Should I be building links mainly to the home page with only a few to internal pages? Ultimately I want my internal pages to rank for specific terms so in my head it makes sense to concentrate my link building effort to internal pages but that would seem unnatural to google I'm sure.
For arguments sake if I only built links to the home page with a mix of the anchor texts described above would these internal pages rank eventually anyway as 'link juice' flows throughout the site? Or is it an absolute must to build some links to internal pages. Could a page rank for a keyword without having any links to the site with the keyword anchor text (simply url links) based on the page title/content?
Also what is a good ratio of home page to internal links? I would assume around 10:1?
A lot of questions I know but I'm confused as to what will be the best strategy.
-
MOST of your links should be internal pages...especially if you run a site with a lot of pages.
Take a blog with 150 posts. What are the odds that 90% of his links point to his (or her) homepage?
There's no hard and fast rule about what percentage of homepage vs. internal links you should have...but I try to have less than 50% of my links pointing to my homepage.
-
I agree - I think it's important to do more than just the home page. I don't agree there's a specific science / ratio to it for a few reasons: if it was that specific, everyone would do it and we know Google wouldn't let it be that obvious because people would game the system.
There's relative factors to consider: some pages on your site may be way more competitive to rank for than others. If your overall domain authority is a little lower, you have to compensate for that. On my site, I can get some pages to rank well pretty much just with on page optimization because it's not a competitive term. There's others that are taking tons of links, strong keyword hierarchy and such to even get into the top 20.
The best strategy for you will (I'd assume) be based on evaluating how competitive your field is and what pages you want to rank for the best user experience to drive conversions. Will just your homepage do that? Do you need other pages w/in your site to offer a better experience?
-
I happen to think that your link profile needs to be robust to your internal pages. Think about user experience here. If someone is on another blog and writing about red apples, would the person want to go to the home page of a farmers website about red apples or a sub-page about red apples. I just think that is natural. If they go to the homepage of your site then they will have to find the page on red apples. I can image that your bounce rate would be pretty high if that was the case. I don't worry to much about percentages on any sort of link building campaign. I don't know if 10:1 or 15:1 or 1:1 is correct. I can tell you from just about everything the search engines do that percentages don't matter. It's about quality. As a general rule of thumb, its going to depend on your type of website you are building. If you have an e-commerce site and the link is from some where talking about sites as a whole, the link to your home page is fine. But, if the source of the link is talking about a particular product, then I think that link needs to be to a particular sub-page talking about that product. Again, don't get caught up in percentages. If you have high quality link prospects then you will naturally be varying your link profile. If you are using automated links then you won't. Hope that helps a little.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Looking for a Link Building Strategy
Hi, I am looking for information on how to develop a link building strategy... I am wondering if its a good to go through a list of directory sites ( which I do not currently have)... Does anyone have a list? Do people set targets for the amount of links they wish to get?.
Link Building | | paddyaran0 -
Most significant link building factor
Am I right in thinking the most important link building factor is the number of unique linking root domains? Multiple links from a domain won't help me so much?
Link Building | | SamCUK0 -
Link building Activities
As everyone is saying that link building is dead , And we should be doing RCS, to earn links. Q1, so my question is that are these below mentioned activities no longer effective?: directory submission
Link Building | | conversiontactics
classified listing
business listing
social bookmarking
reciprocal listing
Guess bloggin
blog comment
forum posts
inforgraphics
Articles
Press release What sort of activities should we be doing for earning links Has anyone got any process , please share.0 -
Link Building for a Newbie!
Hi Guys & Girls. Following my previous question, I seem to really be getting to grips with SEOmoz and all its features which seem fantastic. As mentioned before, I am quite new to this SEO game and learning all the time!! Through all my reading and learning over the last week I have learnt that Link Building is one of the most powerful ways of increasing your SEO game. I'm really trying to get my head around it all. I have come across things like "Link Farming" which seems to be a big no no in terms of Google. Submitting to Link directories etc etc. Now for somebody new, this all comes across quite confusing. Can anybody out there provide me with a really simple but informative way to effectively Link Build? Best practices etc etc! I really want to learn and "up" my game! The website that I am working with is http://www.advanced-incar.co.uk Many thanks, Tim
Link Building | | timborrill0 -
Can I Boost Ranking Linking off Pages internallly?
My domain authority is relatively low, but my right now my homepage seems to have the highest rank. If I place a few internal page links on my homepage, would this boost ranking on internal pages? Or would it pull juice away from my homepage? Using the Seomoz OSE I see alot of my competitors using this type of strategy linking internally. Also would using breadcrumb links benefit me in anyway? Thanks very much!
Link Building | | TP_Marketing0 -
Link building monitor
Hi i am trying to find a good link building monitoring tool, all the ones I have looked at are terrible. Basically i want to import my list of links so they can be monitored then emailed when failing. Can anyone suggest one they have used?
Link Building | | TomBarker820 -
Different Link Titles Linking to the same page
So I'm doing a lot of link building but my question is how do search engines treat different link titles to the same page. For example, my main page is www.musillawfirm.com If I have 20 links from 20 sites linking to it as Melbourne FL DUI Lawyer and 20 more linking as Melbourne FL immigration Lawyer and More linking as Cocoa FL DUI lawyer etc... what happens? Do the search engines just rank me higher for all the terms or would it be better to always just link to separate landing pages? Thanks in advance
Link Building | | musillawfirm0 -
Do Expired Domain Retain Their Page Rank ?
I am a little bit confused about buying expired Domain Names because i have got mixed advice over the internet. Some Say That They Lose Their Page Rank And Some Say That They Don't. So I would really love to hear what PRO Members have to say about it! Also is it a Good Idea to use Expired Domain names for Link Building ? Rishi
Link Building | | RishiSeo0