The scattergun effect

Do you spread incoming links around your site?

[shanz]

I'm sure this will have been covered before but I'd like to hear some opinions.

I have around 50 incoming links to my index page. PR6 Recently after taking some content advice in this forum I created some new content that focused on other search topics. I then searched out about 10 new incoming links for each of these new pages. As a result I have dropped slightly in the placement of my old keywords. ie from two or three down to 5-6. I have however found that many more of my pages appear in the top 30 for google. So instead of having one entry at number two I have say 3-5 entries further down the top ten to thirty. Rather annoyingly some important keywords only reach place 8-9 when they used to hit near the top.

So does anyone out there have any opinions as to whether I am better off with one high rank for my important keywords or more entries in the top twenty for these searches.

Are there other important issues regarding this form of linking, say linking for PR penalties?

Cheers Shanz

[ciml]

Many of us find it better to have many listings in Google for low traffic phrases than one high listing for a popular phrase.

Your question is slightly different; I'm not sure how much joy you'll have with lower listings for extra popular phrases.

I don't understand, though, how adding extra content and getting extra links hurts your listings for the original pages.

[Beachboy]

In my case, I prefer to have inbound links spread over the various pages of the site, thus boosting the ranking of individual pages in the SERPs. Of course, each page of the site has unique content and responds to a particular set of keywords. If you can get a LOT of inbound links to these pages, so much the better.

[jady]

We bring about 80-85% of links to our index page. The other 15-20% go to a secondary page. We find rankings are good as long as KW density is suffice and the PR is at least a 4..

[shanz]

Thanks for the input guys

Ciml-

I guess I have managed to dilute the KW density for certain terms. Pages that were top 3 for only one term now appear in the top ten for 5 or 6 terms and phrases. I am also seeing up to 4 pages from my site appear on the top 10 for specialist but valuable keywords.

I am a beginner at this so quite often a tweak here or there requires certain modificaion. I think I am being a tad hasty and making changes for changes sake without letting the new links I am receiving filter through. Time to leave well alone. I guess I am happy with more entries in the first instance with stage two being to move them up the list.

[ciml]

I understand now, shanz. I thought you meant that you'd added new pages; diluting an existing page can lower rankings as you describe.

[egomaniac]

hello shanz,

It sounds like in adding the new content to your site, you diluted the focus of your home page. This would account for your drop in rankings there.

As for whether it is better to have top ranking on one high traffic kw or "decent" placement for a lot of terms, the answer is "it depends". Take a look at how targeted the kw is for the objectives of your site. If the one high traffic term is very targeted to you, then that would be very valuable to be in the top 3. All traffic is not equal. What the person was searching and how well your landing page matches that is a big determinant into whether the visitor "converts" for you (into a sale, a new subscriber, etc.).

Target your pages to the right keywords and get enough inbound links, and you can get high rankings on both high traffic and low traffic kw's. I think it is good to spread some of your inbound links around as long as you do it strategically. Look at the pages that are up against the most competition, and target your inbound links to those pages.

Hope that helps.