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PR - spread it or focus it?

Internal linking strategy

         

Steve at Activia

12:25 pm on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)



Hi - despite reading some brilliant stuff out there (especially from Brett) I need help with PR as I'm being hit with two schools of thought:
1) Spread PR across the site
2) Concentrate PR on the home page

They have completely different implications for site navigation : the first entails universal cross-linking, whereas the second means that internal links will be very selective.

I can see justification for 2) on the grounds of simpler navigation for visitors and the fact that some listings I've obtained seem to point to the home page anyway (even when no keywords exist on the page!) Not to mention that a home page (or any page) containing say one-third of the site's PR ought to have more SE clout.

But I get the impression that 1) is the favoured view.

There are some very capable guys out there, so could anyone advise on the best strategy (and why?) - or would it vary with the situation or purpose of the site?

lazerzubb

12:29 pm on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Steve_at_Activia, Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

We had a quite similar thread a few days [webmasterworld.com] ago.

The Themeing thread might also help [webmasterworld.com]

BroadProspect

1:48 pm on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



IMHO I think that it is better to have one page with great PR the 10 with a lower on, the only issue is that on that one page you need to have all the right keywords ...

BroadProspect

paynt

1:55 pm on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)



For me it's a site by site strategy, how large of a site I am working with, how much content, how focused my themes, what the competiton is and how big is the industry is and how much coverage I'm looking for. In most cases one page, the homepage just can't be optimized to carry the weight of the whole site and so I spread my PageRank around when I can, if need be. I can always get folks to link to the homepage but it takes really good content and a bit of strategy to get those deep links.

Welcome as well BroadProspect.

Travoli

1:56 pm on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I prefer spreading it around, casting a large net.

stevew

2:21 pm on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Seems like it definitely depends on the site, and whether the home (or any) page can carry all the keywords.

Also seems like as content becomes ever more king, that sites will need to become bigger, and the need to spread PR around to the relevant areas will increase.

Brett_Tabke

10:45 pm on Jan 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I think it depends on how many pages and how much content you have. If you have some fairly broad keyword rich content pages, then spread that pr as far and wide as possible. Why settle for traffic to one high page, instead of getting hits to 50 for a variety of related phrases? The perk is you start to hit on those wide 4-7 keyword phrases that never show up in lists and you had no idea people were using.

BigDave

11:00 pm on Jan 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I don't think I have ever seen my home page come up in a serp for anything other than my domain name.

In my case it makes no sense to try and concentrate my PR. So far in January, I have had 9600 different keyphrases used to find my site, and the highest single keyphrase accounted for only 0.6% of my SE traffic.

But if you are a company that sells 5 very related products, then you should go ahead and shoot for that high PR home page wull of content.

brotherhood of LAN

11:09 pm on Jan 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



In my case it makes no sense to try and concentrate my PR. So far in January, I have had 9600 different keyphrases used to find my site, and the highest single keyphrase accounted for only 0.6% of my SE traffic.

Pretty much the same here, 40% of SE referrals range from #1 bringing in 150 uniques a day to #20 only bringing in 5 uniques a day.

So the other 60% of referrals are coming in at less than 5 a day....and there are lots of them.

PR is a "bit linear" while focusing on keywords on the page instead can perhaps be a bit more rewarding.

All those 2/3/4/5 word search queries that end up at your site probably had little to do with PR and more to do with the fact the keywords existed on the page :)

fathom

1:31 pm on Jan 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



paynt wrote:...how focused my themes...

Brett wrote:...depends on how many pages and how much content you have.

brotherhood_of_LAN wrote:...PR is a "bit linear" while focusing on keywords on the page instead can perhaps be a bit more rewarding.

Some brilliant words of wisdom between these three quotes.

If you are only targeting a single keyword or keyphrase then the homepage has the best chance at being ranked, therefore all links should start by pointing here.

Having work with a large tourism site where the themes are broadly focused, not to mention that even the primary themes are different depending on which market is searching (e.g - "travel" or "tourism"), and lesser themes - hotels, B&B, camping, campgrounds, tours, hiking etc.

Obviously a query for B&B is no less important for this site than hiking thus it makes perfect sense to use various inbound anchors, (for same theme sites) but also focusing those anchors to unique landing pages.

It's a little under-productive to attempt targeting "all" travel & tourism themes and sub themes to the mainpage since 500 possibles would have the specific visitors searching through 499 non-relevant themes to their query.

Also "tourism" and "travel" (to homepage anchors) would be far more competitive than hiking, camping, etc., therefore the less competitive & more specific keywords can be lower in the internal link structure while ranking just as high, spreading PageRank around.

In the greater scheme of things - if PageRank is considered as a separate issue from the other 99 things which produces good rankings you are not getting the most out of it, or your web site.

Point the anchor to the page with the best chance of being ranked for that specific keyword/keyphrase, where possible.

Running multiple link campaigns isn't a bad idea either.

Waterloo

2:24 pm on Jan 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I spread it about to key pages only.

GodLikeLotus

2:33 pm on Jan 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Does the PR of your index page get lower if you have many links on it? We added links to all our pages (270 approx) from the index page and now seem to be stuck on PR5. We have 1 PR7 link, about 10 PR6 links and about 50+ PR 5's and 4's. What has happened though after doing this is that the PR of all our other pages has dropped to PR2 and PR3. I assume we are splitting our site's PR, but our we lowering the index pages PR?

Waterloo

2:37 pm on Jan 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



>Does the PR of your index page get lower if you have many links on it?

No