Increase Traffic by 20% With These 3 Exercises

Internal links are one of your greatest allies in SEO:

• They coach Google on the relationships between content.
• They help declare to Google how high-priority a page is to you.
• They guide readers deeper into your network.

There's even evidence Google treats them in a very similar way to backlinks.

And definitely in my experience...more internal links = higher rank.

Perhaps most importantly, they're fully in your control and FREE.

These exercises are baked into my quarterly client processes. It makes sure we never stop building a stronger, tighter network of content.

P.S. Scroll to the bottom for more content on this topic

Exercise 1 - Maintenance & Boosting What's Working

1. List your top 10 most important pages—By conversions or traffic in the last 28 days depending on your goals.
2. Add 10 internal links to each one.
3. Where do those links come from? Find:

• At least 5 pages on relevant topics.
• At least 2 pages with high traffic.
• At least 2 pages with a high backlink count.

4. Track the impact on traffic, impressions, and conversions.

(I share some tips on doing internal linking right at the end)

Exercise 2 - Boosting Nearly Famous Content

1. Go to Ahrefs and find 10 pages ranking in positions 7 to 10 for their core keyword.
2. Add 10 internal links to each one.
3. Where do those links come from? Find:

• At least 5 pages on relevant topics.
• At least 2 pages with high traffic.
• At least 2 pages with a high backlink count.

4. Track the impact on traffic, impressions, and conversions.

(starting to see a theme here?)

Exercise 3 - Boost Hidden Content

1. Find all pages with crawl depth >3.
2. Add 10 internal links to each one.
3. Where do those links come from? Find:

• At least 5 pages on relevant topics.
• At least 2 pages with high traffic.
• At least 2 pages with a high backlink count.

4. Track the impact on traffic, impressions, and conversions.

Tips for internal links:

• Aim for 70% exact match anchor text.
• And 30% non-exact match.
• Aim to link under a relevant heading and in relevant text—make sure it’s useful to the reader.
• Aim to link toward the top of each page. These have higher weights.
• Make your anchor text uniquely relevant to that page; no two pages have the same anchor text.

Related reads from me

1. 3 Myths About Internal Links That Need to Stop
2. Steal My Internal Link Audit Process (With Epic Template)
3. Proper Internal Linking (Standard Operating Procedure)
4. Simple Yet Powerful SEO Tactic [+ an Insider Tip From Typeform]

Enjoy amigos.

—Benny

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