Internal linking question

Discussion in 'Link Development' started by adamnldt, Aug 10, 2009.

  1. #1
    Been looking around for mre info on internal linking, but a lot of it is rather vague, so I figured I would like more concrete advice which likely requires a more specific question and example, so here goes:

    The site I'm working with is a professional training site of 870 pages, let’s say the main keyword is ‘widget training’, which the home page is trying to rank for. Other keyphrases include ‘widget workshops’, ‘widget seminars’, ‘widget resources’, etc.

    The site I’ve started working with has very limited internal linking at this point, mainly to product pages. I recently went through and added a lot of links within the site to existing text for a couple terms, let's say 'widget seminars' and 'widget training'. In some cases I made some slight alterations to existing text to fit my desired anchor text, but it still read well.

    That said, after adding about 20 anchor text links for each, my rankings plummeted. I took them out and they’ve inched back roughly to where they were. By most metrics, I should be a top site for both terms (according to Linkscape Visualizer in SEOMoz), but instead ranks in the 20s.
    So my question is, how should I proceed? More variation when adding anchor text? Do it more slowly? Any thoughts?

    Thanks!
     
    adamnldt, Aug 10, 2009 IP
  2. fredzog

    fredzog Peon

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    #2
    The only thing that comes to mind is that if Google thought you were creating doorway pages this could cause you to be penalised. Deep internal linking should strengthen the overall view of the site's coherency and relevancy. So it comes as a surprise that your rankings dropped.

    To avoid doorway page penalties, be sure there are no pages that only link into the site with no links coming back. From what you have said I doubt this is the case, but I raise it just in case.

    I would definitely go very slowly. I would also vary the anchor text greatly, using google's free keyword tool to find synonyms and related kws.
     
    fredzog, Aug 10, 2009 IP
    evolveforever likes this.