can you improve a page rank with internal links?

1. 58

   Bill Manningposted 12 years ago

   I'm still trying to push up a page I made a few weeks in my own site in the rankings. It's on the third page of Google toward the top.
   
   It's a very popular key word, so I really want to push it up. I've done lots of external links to it, but what about internal?
   
   If I had 5 or so other pages in my website pointing to that page, would it help at all?

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2. 75

   Hauntyposted 12 years ago

   I don't know how many internal links it takes, but yes, they can improve page rank.

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   1. 58

      Bill Manningposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks. I guess I can just link to that page from others that are like it and has a purpose. Any is better than none, right? If I ranked well for this one key word I'd get more traffic than all my others on that site combined!

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3. 67

   Peter Hogganposted 12 years ago

   Try to stay away from links in common areas such as sidebars and footers etc. Use contextual links from within the main page content, they will carry more weight.
   
   For a prime example look at any wikipedia page and you will see how they crosslink related pages.

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   1. 58

      Bill Manningposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Great idea, thanks. Yeah I'll try to make them natural from other pages that are closely related to it. I have a bunch of those.

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4. 90

   WryLiltposted 12 years ago

   I believe that's the basic point of having lots of tags.

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   1. 58

      Bill Manningposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Well yes, but they don't push any rank juice to any pages. Direct links to pages even internal seem to give some ranking to that page.
      
      Plus if your site is about a niche you can quickly have dozens of articles returned for one tag search.

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5. 0

   Nelle Hoxieposted 12 years ago

   I do believe that internal links matter. The HP Team does as well, since they're trying to get us to link to other sites as well as our own and are giving us HubKarma points.
   
   Nothing scientific, but part of me believes that G watches where we put our emphasis, and acts accordingly.

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   1. 58

      Bill Manningposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, I hope so. I'm going to start linking my internal pages more to top articles I really want to rank for. Not overdo it, but pick prime key word articles that already rank good.

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6. 60

   PR_amposted 12 years ago

   Yes internal links improve ranking. Try to keep the cross linking balanced though. Avoid using same phrases on all anchor link texts and never do all linking from 5 or more pages same day.
   
   All the best!

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7. 93

   Pcunixposted 12 years ago

   If there were no value, SEO tools that show links wouldn't bother to show internal links.
   
   A few years back, people were even recommending using "nofollow" on internal links to focus and shape link juice.  That practice is  discouraged by Google but you will still see some out of touch person recommend it now and then.
   
   Internal links should be just like external: relevant and anchored appropriately.

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8. 67

   Peter Hogganposted 12 years ago

   PageRank sculpting was around long before the nofollow tag was introduced but since Google updated its PageRank algorithm it has become less effective and wastes a lot of the internal link juice. It's still possible to sculpt PageRank and it’s a highly effective SEO technique and when done right is completely ethical.

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9. 93

   Pcunixposted 12 years ago

   Matt Cutts has a long post on this:
   
   http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting

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10. 58

    Bill Manningposted 12 years ago

    Well when all is said and done, linking to your own pages is just a good idea anyway. If you have an article related to another one, you should link to that one as a favor to your readers.
    
    Plus it might keep them on your site longer, increasing your chances of clicks. As for nofollow, I never use them on links inside my own sites. I don't even use them on outbound links.

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    1. 67

       Peter Hogganposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Actually your OP wasn’t related to PageRank sculpting and I fail to see why it has been introduced here. I only responded to clear up any misconception.

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11. 67

    Peter Hogganposted 12 years ago

    Pcunix, by changing the way your pages link to each other you are essentially PageRank sculpting. For example a true web structure is far less effective at passing Link juice to important pages than a well organized hierarchical structure.
    
    There is absolutely nothing wrong with sculpting PageRank in this manner in fact it’s an important part of creating a well organized site structure that promotes the most important pages. It can be spam if done incorrectly but so could any aspect of SEO. This seems to be a distinction you have great difficulty recognizing.

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    1. 93

       Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Peter, I didn't say a single thing about sculpting.  I was talking about the use of nofollow for that purpose.
       
       You seem, as usual, to have great difficulty reading.  Go fly a kite or whatever it is you do when you are not pretending to be the only person with any knowledge here.

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       1. 67

          Peter Hogganposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          The termanology for the technique you described is PageRank Sculpting, now you know.

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          1. 93

             Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Oh, thank you oh great one.  I had no idea.  Please allow me to lick your boots.
             
             I specifically did NOT use that word because it was not important or even relevant to the point I was making.  But because you can't read and are always  looking for trouble, you had to bring it up and start slinging mud like you always do.
             
             I get really tired of you.

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12. 93

    Pcunixposted 12 years ago

    Sigh.
    
    I mentioned the deprecated use of nofollow on internal links simply as a point of evidence thst internal links obviously do have influence.
    
    So, if Peter cannot understand the relevance, I am quite sure everyone else can.

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    1. 67

       Peter Hogganposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       You said,
       
       A few years back, people were even recommending using "nofollow" on internal links to focus and shape link juice.
       
       This is PageRank Sculpting.
       
       Nothing wrong with using the correct terminology is there?

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13. 67

    Peter Hogganposted 12 years ago

    I am so glad you get tired of me. That makes me so happy.
    
    

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14. 58

    Bill Manningposted 12 years ago

    I see both of your points, thank you.
    
    I don't care if I need to use a shovel and pick ax, I just want to try to get my page up there. I see a few on the first page of google that does not come close to the quality of my article on that particular key word.
    
    BTW, It's now only the second one down on the third page, getting there!

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15. 67

    Peter Hogganposted 12 years ago

    Bill, is this is a page on your own website?

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    1. 58

       Bill Manningposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Yes it's on my own site, I did mention that in my OP. Thanks.

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16. 69

    MikeNVposted 12 years ago

    Page Sculpting used to work by modifying which internal pages link to other pages.
    
    Google officially killed this practice more than a year ago.
    
    You can search for the official statements made by Matt Cutts if you like.
    
    Bottom line is you are wasting your time worrying about trying to push one page over the other internally.
    
    What is much more important is you have a sitemap and easy to follow navigation so the search bots can index all your content.
    
    Then back to work tying to find targeted traffic.
    
    While most people fret over Google ranking I go out and put my stuff in front of actual buyers.  You don't have to rank in Google at all to make money.  However if you search for links that will bring you real targeted traffic you will also rank.  And this is exactly the type of links that Google will index higher.

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17. 67

    Peter Hogganposted 12 years ago

    PageRank is still controlled by the way pages link to each other.
    
    Although PageRank isn’t as valuable as it used to be and although Google have amended their PageRank algo so that nofollow links now sap PageRank it is impossible to build a site that does not sculpt PageRank in some way. The most powerful page in almost any website and the one with the highest PageRank is the index page simply because its common practice to link back to the index from every other page.
    
    The same technique can be used to maximize the links pointing to the most important pages of your website and help their rankings. The more indexed pages your website has the more powerful this technique becomes. A good deal of thought should be put into site structure so that the maximum benefit of the link juice flowing through a site is focused on the most important pages.

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    1. 58

       Bill Manningposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Hey Peter, did you get my reply?

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       1. 67

          Peter Hogganposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          yep, will get back to you tomorrow.

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          1. 58

             Bill Manningposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Good deal, thanks!

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18. 0

    ryankettposted 12 years ago

    Links pass 'juice'.
    
    If I link a made up hubpage called 'manchester united soccer jersey' to a made up hubpage called 'manchester united soccer mugs, then surely the backlinks pointed towards the former will pass a little bit of juice to the latter?
    
    That is my understanding anyway. I primarily use internal links as a means of keeping traffic on my pages, and of course to benefit from referral trackers. A reader viewing 3 of my pages is 3 times more likely to click on an Ad unit or Capsule, I tend to approach it with that very simple concept.
    
    It can also be your only means of driving traffic to an extremely competitive niche. If your not getting anywhere near the top few pages of Google, then drive the traffic from a high traffic hub instead.
    
    In conclusion, irrespective of whether it does or not, there are plenty of other benefits from internal linking.

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    1. 58

       Bill Manningposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Well said and I agree. Like, I just made a bunch of Holiday event happenings going on at the Disney and Universal Studios theme parks. I noticed people were looking up my last years same articles, which are dated.
       
       So I popped in a little "to see this years event times and information for this, go to my new updated article".
       
       It helped my readers trying to find out this years times and actives while also giving them a bit of juice, since they were the same subject.

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19. 60

    johnortonposted 12 years ago

    @bill manning you want to promote your main page with internal pages this is good idea and you may be succeed but dear you have to promote your internal pages also why you are doing extra labour for making new pages. Create some good PR links from trustworthy sites. This can be easy and effective method for you to getting the Page Rank of your main page. 
    
    And if you want to give links on your internal pages then give contextual links as compared to footer links. Sidebar links is ok but google love links in text.
    
    
    All the best

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20. 58

    Bill Manningposted 12 years ago

    Just wanted to let you all know I've managed to get to the last result in page 2! So the links are working. I need to get more external links to it now.
    
    Plus I'm making more articles within my site on the same subject. So that should help not only that page but my site overall rank for this keyword.
    
    Hopefully by the Holidays I'll be on the first page of Google for this term. Yes it's a good keyword for the Holidays.

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21. 49

    gargamelposted 12 years ago

    yes because each new page you add has a minimum pagerank. hence if you add 1000 pages to your sites and point them to one you will see a difference.
    watch and learn from wikipedia

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