SaulCode
Power Member
- Mar 5, 2018
- 617
- 132
I’ve been testing a lot of small on-page changes lately, and internal linking keeps standing out more than expected. Not as a magic fix, but as something that moves the needle faster than most people think.
On a few sites, I didn’t change content or build links. I just cleaned up how pages connect. Old posts pointing to random stuff were updated to point to pages that actually matter. Thin pages got links from stronger ones. Orphan pages were either linked properly or removed.
What surprised me was how fast some pages reacted. Not huge jumps, but steady movement in a couple of weeks. That’s faster than most content updates I’ve done this year.
I try to keep it simple. One main topic per page. That page links out to supporting articles. Those supporting articles link back using natural words, not the same phrase every time. I avoid footer spam and sitewide blocks. Most links are in the body, where they make sense for a reader.
I also look at pages that already get traffic and ask one question. Where can this page pass value next? Even one or two good links from a strong page seem to help more than adding ten weak ones.
That said, I’m not sure how far to push it. At some point, too many links feel messy. There’s also the risk of over-optimizing anchor text without realizing it.
So I’m curious how others handle this. Do you plan internal links from day one, or do you add them later once traffic shows up? And how do you decide which pages deserve the most internal link power?
On a few sites, I didn’t change content or build links. I just cleaned up how pages connect. Old posts pointing to random stuff were updated to point to pages that actually matter. Thin pages got links from stronger ones. Orphan pages were either linked properly or removed.
What surprised me was how fast some pages reacted. Not huge jumps, but steady movement in a couple of weeks. That’s faster than most content updates I’ve done this year.
I try to keep it simple. One main topic per page. That page links out to supporting articles. Those supporting articles link back using natural words, not the same phrase every time. I avoid footer spam and sitewide blocks. Most links are in the body, where they make sense for a reader.
I also look at pages that already get traffic and ask one question. Where can this page pass value next? Even one or two good links from a strong page seem to help more than adding ten weak ones.
That said, I’m not sure how far to push it. At some point, too many links feel messy. There’s also the risk of over-optimizing anchor text without realizing it.
So I’m curious how others handle this. Do you plan internal links from day one, or do you add them later once traffic shows up? And how do you decide which pages deserve the most internal link power?
