With the recent changes in Google SERPS and the Google Mayday update mayhem of thin inner pages, ecommerce and thin affiliate pages getting slammed in rankings, I thought it was important to look at how to properly create and rank inner pages of websites and blogs.
Probably one of the most overlooked and potentially powerful aspects of any website or blog are the inner pages. So many times people focus on the home page in getting links and also for the display of content and navigation that the inner pages become almost an after thought in the overall site architecture - this is a big mistake!
Inner pages offer the most potential for bringing in tons of traffic and for dominating the SERPS for various keyword terms that people are searching for and if you are not targeting and optimizing your inner page content correctly you are really missing out on a plethora of traffic, which means you are missing out on strong streams of revenue.
While some ignore inner pages others have tons of them but they are not properly optimized and so they do not reap the benefits that they potentially can for the webmaster or blogger.
More Inner Pages Ranking in SERPS = More Traffic
and
More Traffic = Bigger Potential for Revenue
How To Get High Rankings for Inner Pages
1. Proper KW research
I know, keyword research - UGH - we eat, sleep and breath it, but again, we will not succeed without it!
Many people just create blog posts or static website pages without giving any thought or research into what people are searching for related to the niche of the site.
Search out keyword terms and phrases that people are searching for
AND
make sure the competition for those is fairly low (this can depend on your site's overall authority)AND
do this for each and every page that you post.
otherwise...
you just have pages floating out in the Web that nobody will ever find!
Learn the steps in Step By Step Keyword Research.
2. Nauseatingly Long Posts and Pages - Competing in SERPS for Affiliate Product Pages and Ecommerce Sites
It is a fact that the search engines, and especially Google loves nauseatingly long posts and written content pages, remember that the search engines are very content driven and pages that are 1000, 2000, 3000 + words long are just so attractive to them.
For many 300 - 500 words may seem like enough, but I say NO WAY! This is especially true for affiliate and money sites, because remember in order for those to be favorable in Google you need to add additional value to the user above and beyond just affiliate and product links that all ready exist on the merchant's site.
It is more important than ever to make sure that your product pages and affiliate feed pages have some added value, whether it be product descriptions, user reviews and comments, or anything related to the page.
If you cannot conceive of writing such long pages for money sites, or you just don't have the time, then use PLR. There are some great PLR articles out there, such as the very well written niche topic Flamillion PLR Packs and eBooks, then rewrite them yourself, or use the Best Content Spinner, to easily and quickly make them unique. A perfect combination for creating tons of great content pages for your money sites.
For product pages, such as those on e-commerce sites, or affiliate sites that use product data feeds smaller blurbs of about 250 - 400 words are really helpful, especially since Google is favoring such pages in SERPS, as we are seeing in the Mayday update.
If you can't stand writing and don't want to spin then outsource your writing, for as little as $5 you can get 500 words of original well written content that you own. Check out 99 Cent Articles, I've been using them and they have excellent writers at a great price.
3. Link Building for Inner Pages
Once again, many strive to rank the home page in the SERPS and so they spend all their time building and attracting links to their home page, but what about the inner pages?
Get links to your inner pages and get plenty of them, write content people will want to link to, and don't ignore your most important inner pages.
You can use this really great Article Marketing Submission Software to get exposure and links to your inner pages, try writing some articles and link only to your inner pages in the resource box. With 2 links in the resource box and submission to several hundred sites, you can easily get hundreds of backlinks to your inner pages with one submission.
Check out Article Ranks, this is a unique system for getting within content backlinks to you inner pages.
Trusted Domains and High Ranking of Inner Pages
One of the most magical aspects of having a trusted and high ranking domain in Google is that most inner pages (with exception of highly competitive keywords) that you launch will almost instantly take the top positions in SERPS. This is basically due to the fact that Google views your site as an authority and your links base profile is already so strong that all new inner pages will piggyback off that link power.
This blog for example has many inner pages sitting on page 1 in Google SERPS and this is because the base link profile is rather strong and the Google trust rank is high and so I can write a page of content, post it and most of the time within a couple of days it goes to Page 1.
Also, if you notice many of my posts are very long, 1000 words + because I want to provide a lot of value to my readers and so this happens naturally and I truly believe that this has something to do with the ranking success of this site, not only because people have naturally wanted to link to the value here, but also because of the length of the posts.
Ranking and trusted domain = easier rank of inner pages
New and Unranked Sites and Ranking of Inner Pages
When you site is new and the trust rank isn't there more work will be required to get those inner pages to rank, so write some articles, build some links, including some social media links in the proper niche categories and get the word out about your great piece of content to attract good links to get you inner page to rank and bring you traffic and the potential for revenue.
New and Unranked Sites = The Need for More Links to Rank Inner Pages
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(35 comments)
Lynn Terry wrote an awesome post titled, “Stop Linking To Your Homepage!” on her blog; I link to it often. Easily searchable, or I can come back with the link.
Much of this is going to be come prevalent in my life when my own e-commerce site is up and running…..another excellent reason to have a blog attached; not all sites of that nature are easy to fill with content.
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@ Dennis,
Yes a blog is very helpful, but remember that they Mayday update significantly affected the product pages of ecommerce sites that had no other content but their product listings, so what seems to be evident is that those pages need written content added around the products, something like product descriptions or even better comments and ratings, which will be constantly updated by users, just like Amazon has.
Follow Me on Twitter @: colleenlane
(9 comments)
“For many 300 – 500 words may seem like enough, but I say NO WAY!”
I agree. In fact, one of our pages has close to 3500 words! It ranks well for ‘kennewick wa real estate’ and ‘kennewick wa homes’ which are competitive phrases in our local niche.
Your article today has me thinking I need to do the same on some of our other pages. We try to keep ‘above the fold’ clean for the visitors, but below the fold we optimize for the search engines. A necessary evil I guess.
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@ Colleen
Exactly, a very necessary evil, especially since Mayday. I put all my content on my affiliate pages below the fold, just like Amazon does, if people want to look there it’s there for them to see, and in the perfect place as to not distract them from the monetization and it’s the perfect place for the search engines. Right now I am updating several sites to see what kind of impact I get in the SERPS, will keep you updated, but overall this is a solid practice.
3500 words, you have beat me, I can’t believe it, lol, I gotta get on that!
that is good you have 2 keyword phrases per page. don’t try using more – it won’t work! 3500 words per post – does it work? do people get tired of reading such a long article? what’s the bounce rate?
Follow Me on Twitter @: danielsharkov
(8 comments)
I can’t agree more with you that internal links are one of the most overlooked aspects of a web page. It was just several weeks ago when I actually started adding some optimizations to mines and there definitely seems to be some difference. Long articles are certainly a good thing . At the moment my articles average around 500-600 words and it seems that this is a bit too low. Will have to put more time on adding content in the future.
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Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(35 comments)
All things I’ll have for sure, although there may not be room for comments and ratings right there against the product itself; descriptions for sure, at the very least.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing recently posted..Have You Written Any WordPress 30 Feature Posts
@ Dennis
I put my comments and ratings under the product decsrptions which go under the product listings, all below the fold, works quite well.
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(35 comments)
JR, I hit the reply button for the comment above, but it did not go in under yours like replies should…dunno why.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing recently posted..Have You Written Any WordPress 30 Feature Posts
@ Dennis
Thanks I will look into it.
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(35 comments)
Colleen,
See now, doing what I do, if I had 3500 words for something I think I’d be more tempted to turn it into a small giveaway report or something.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing recently posted..Have You Written Any WordPress 30 Feature Posts
@ Dennis
That is true, but you can always do both
. 3500 words of content on a page is great for the SE’s and users as well.
Good stuff JR,
I have been banging in about the importance of inner page backlinks for a while now. I have definitely found that even without linking much to the homepage and the main keyword it can get to number 1 just because of the overall authority of the site because so many inner pages have a lot of backlinks.
I am in two minds about the length of the content though. I get amazing rankings for sites with posts of only 300 words or less and although on a new site, my 13000 word Amazon guide gets little little G love. Backlinks are the answer, for big or small content. Need to get on to it at some point, but who makes money from a make money online blog, products no one else is chasing is the way to go.
Personally I would say spend most backlinking time on inner pages, build authority sites with hundreds of articles and dominate a niche. Forget going for just a keyword or two, aim for hundreds if not thousands for a site.
But I have to say I don’t do much keyword research anymore. Aiming mostly for products based sites now for affiliate sales I have more than enough buying keywords for any niche and it certainly frees up a lot of time.
Nice to read a new post from you, been following you under a few guises for a long time now. 5 star affiliate back in the day, seems a lifetime ago.
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@ Dave
Oh wow, 5 Star, that was back in the day, I haven’t been there in so long, it was a lifetime ago. Are you still active over there?
I agree with everything you said, and targeting individual products is really right on, I have been doing more of that with my money sites, loads of targeted traffic over there. And yes, getting more links to the inner pages does build authority, and gets the home page ranked eventually. In reality it totally makes sense, when people link they tend to link to inner content, not the home page, so it looks very natural. This blog really exemplifies that, never built a single manual link to this blog, it’s all natural links, and about 80-20 inner to home page, and it’s got lots of rank across many SERPS.
Definitely marketing to the average buyer is where the money is.
Thanks for commenting, I appreciate your feedback and experience.
Follow Me on Twitter @: sallyneill
(3 comments)
Hey JR
Thanks for the post, I learned a lot from it, especially the part about inner back links, had never even heard of them.
That’s something I will be testing out right away,
Sally
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@ Sally
Thanks!
Follow Me on Twitter @: webcreationUK
(6 comments)
So you say, go for the major keywords for your homepage and for inner pages with long-tail keywords? Have I misunderstood?
@ Web Design
Exactly! That is the best practice, always!
Follow Me on Twitter @: larryrivera
(1 comments)
Great article, I was always under the impression that articles written between 250 and 400 words would be good enough. But after what I read here and at another blog I am beginning to realize I need to pay attention to outbound links and inbound links.
I was always chopping up my articles, but I will start letting loose some 1000 word post and see if I notice a difference in the serps.
Larry Rivera recently posted..How To Create Credibility For Your Work At Home Business
@ Larry
Well, longer articles alone is not always enough, depends on the competition of the keywords, but links along with long posts is a good formula. But, for some very low competition keywords if you write 1000+ words not only can you really build a lot of relevance because of naturally flowing keywords throughout the content, but sometimes you can out rank other pages just by the length. I’ve done myself several times
Follow Me on Twitter @: element321
(5 comments)
I agree, I inter page rank is just as important as the home page rank. My site is about 6 months old. Several pages rank well. But they could be better. When I am not working on design my new theme or working on content. I tend to go back to the older posts and work on the SEO or add or remove content as needed.
I also think more content is better. I noticed that any post over 1200 words indexes faster than ome of my shorter ones. I try and average around 1200 words unless I am doing site update posts or quick tip tutorials.
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@ Element321
For sure Google loves that content, the more the better, of course you still need those links for authority and rank, but having thin sites is not going to work in 2010 and beyond.
Follow Me on Twitter @: element321
(5 comments)
I heard the same thing about short articles. Most readers like the short articles. But Google likes them Long, I think its has to do with the changes Google recently made to how sites get ranked. It doesn’t hurt to have a mixture short and long ones. If naturally takes you a 1000 words or more to complete the article that’s good, if it takes less, then don’t stuff the article.
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Follow Me on Twitter @: element321
(5 comments)
I tried posting my second replay to Larry’s post but it didn’t post correctly…
@ Element321
Not sure what is going on with threading, trying to figure it out.
A good post, content and inner page are often ignored by IMers. Lots of content and pages give you all those longtail search queries you would never think of targeting, when I check into google analytics i\m often amazed by the KWs people have arrived from. Backlinking your internal pages tells Google that you’ve got a deep site and improved the ranking for those pages of course.
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(35 comments)
@JR – it all depends on how the site is set up, especially if it is static HTML.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing recently posted..Have You Written Any WordPress 30 Feature Posts
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(35 comments)
@JR regrading 3500 words; both would be good; just sayin; how my mind usually works.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing recently posted..Have You Written Any WordPress 30 Feature Posts
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(35 comments)
Yep, reply link not workin’ even a little for me. These replies must look real odd to the outside reader. lol
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing recently posted..Would You Like a PRIVATE Community
@Dennis,
I know, Im so pissed, can’t figure it out why the reply link won’t work.
Follow Me on Twitter @: netchunks
(3 comments)
I really did never knew that a longer post had good effect on Google rankings.But it is very hard to come up with a post of about 1000 and more words. Thanks for the various tools that you have mentioned. That will make the work pretty easier
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JR, very good topic u hit the bull eye. Previously I always try to get the link for home page now a days i’m working on back links for internal pages.
That’s exactly true JR. After the MayDay update, we’ve seen a huge decrease on some of our clients’ inner product pages. It’s extremely essential to rank for inner pages on SERP’s. Especially if you’re an e-commerce website!
It is so true, I have come acrros websites where the main page has a 3PR then the inner page is empty.
Well Lucas, that’s mostly because the internal page doesn’t get linked to often
External links to your inner pages are much more valuable than internal links 
Follow Me on Twitter @: AMater
(17 comments)
Great tips, JR! It all comes down to the basics: keyword research and link building. I always link to inner pages (blog posts) as well as my home page when building links. This helps the overall authority of the site and helps those inner pages rank for their own keywords.
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Follow Me on Twitter @: thekevintan
(8 comments)
Wow I had no idea about this JR. I was always taught to write around the 500 mark. Looks like I’ll be looking to provide more content in the future.
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@ Kevin
Yes, it really makes a difference, you do need the links of course, but SE’s love all that worded content and I think they favor it.
Having a good link structure will also increase the rankings of the inner pages. Its very important to be able to get to the pages from the home page so the rankings get passed on to the inner pages. A good solid link structure with good anchor text will help you target the keywords for your inner pages.
Exactly Bidet! If you have a good link structure, your inner pages will gain some good link juice from your important pages hence, you can make the best out of most of the pages on your website
You made a lot of great points. I see so many people not touching on keyword research and wasting their time. Using article directories to drive PR to the inner site pages is an excellent idea as well.
Jamie Faidley recently posted..Keyword Research 101
thts the very nice information for getting pagerank of inner pages because this is the problem of every maker of every website and google will index every page of your website…..
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does uniqueness of content effect in innerpage ranking? i think there is no unique content today. if do it mean the older site the better.
Searching out for the similar information regarding how to create the pagerank of inner pages because i heard some where that the inner page rank gives an more traffic to your website.
As the author of Article Marketing Lifeline suggested, every inner page should have an article published on ezinearticles.com. So this is an effective way.
I can figure out several methods to link to inner page: submit articles to article directories, submit to blogs using Free Traffic System, forum signature, social bookmarking, social network. I was wondering can we use blog commenting linking to inner page for I have never done that before (I just link to the homepage)?
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Follow Me on Twitter @: webmaster_serve
(9 comments)
Promoting your inner pages is a good option to increase your overall page rank, Page rank for your deep links can be passed to your home page. You should get links from other websites pointing to those inner pages using the targeted keywords.
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Follow Me on Twitter @: alexanderthegry
(8 comments)
I do agree that promoting inner pages is a very good idea especially if you are doing it for long tail keywords, but you can also promote your inner pages with smart internal linking and after you do some KW research you can promote your pages which are similar with the top keywords of the day, of course this works well if you have a high authority main page!
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Hey man, great advice, i just started link building and am already seeing more traffic just from posting a few comments on relative websites. I look forward to more from you.
Thanks
Do you know how to insert an alt tag in an rss feed?
You made a lot of great points. I see so many people not touching on keyword research and wasting their time. Using article directories to drive PR to the inner site pages is an excellent idea as well.
JR, very good topic u hit the bull eye. Previously I always try to get the link for home page now a days i’m working on back links for internal pages.
@ Coil
Thanks and welcome to the blog
Thanks for the great info, particularly for someone like me starting to learn more about backlinks.
I’m just wondering what other methods can I use to build inner links aside from using article marketing submission services and social bookmarking. I’m kinda short on cash to pay for any subscription services and I’m wondering if there are free yet worthwhile alternatives.
Thanks and great blog by the way…
Blake
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@ Blake
Have you checked out Article Ranks? The cost there is very small, $2 per submission, or you can earn credits by adding your own sites and accepting articles from other members. Submitting articles through them with links back to your own sites is very effective.
This is BY FAR the best post i have read on your blog. This question about linking to inner pages has been bothering me for a while, and I cannot seem to get a straight answer until now. Thanks a bunch!
Thanks for this post JR; I spend hours last week looking for articles about linking inner pages and article marketing – yours hit the spot.
Some good advice
Getting traffic from internal pages…I agree that its overlooked. I spend a lot of time before I ever build a site looking into the other search terms I want to go after once my root has gained trust and is ranking for the main keyword. I did some work with a real estate company last year that had a PR 6 site, the where frustrated that they didn’t rank from some of the smaller towns around them. I asked them if they built pages for each of those towns, and if they did why can’t I find them on your site? They had no pages for those other city’s. Couple weeks of building pages, they ranked for all of them. They didn’t have to sell many homes to make up for that investment.
Links from inner pages are very useful to get high traffic and good ranking of a site under a particular keyword.
I agree that search engines are the contents lovers.Some people says that 350 words article with key word density up 3% is standard but I have done successful experiment of 700 words articles.
good article that how to do inner page rank of website..by using long trail keywords, by putting links to inner pages, ads to inner pages..
in long article we can use more number of keywords and long trail keywords…which helps to grab more traffic and help to increase inner PR of website..
Follow Me on Twitter @: Boomajoom
(23 comments)
I think Google gets suspicious if all the backlinks point to the front page. Variation is key.
Guest blogging is also very helpful in this regard. It allows you to link to product pages, but, depending on where you post, you may actually get customers from the links.
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JR, really very useful information and I personally try to rank my inner pages but so far I am not successful. I will try the methods you have mentioned above.
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Excellent information and really very very innovative idea. Thanks
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After google panda announced,now no one has to build not more than 10 backlinks to the home page perday, And we can build number of back links to inner pages.Just build quality backlinks to your inner page and get pr by next update.
Thanks for sharing a informative details here. I will check my sites inner pages link structure.
it really makes a difference
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Thanks for these tips..I have few inner pages which are ranked pretty good.I also see that is useful to build links for pages that are ranked by google,without your efforts.
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