I often discuss the benefits of building links to deep pages, not only does it increase the overall authority of your domain but it also gives deep pages a better chance of ranking.
If you target keywords in your deep pages using the technique I discussed in a post about longtail optimisation, then building links to deep pages will only increase your rank therefore increasing traffic.
If you have read the first 2 lines of this post and are thinking there is no value to deep page optimisation then you are massively mistaken. I get around 8000 – 10000 visitors a month from search engines and 40% go to deeper pages I have optimised for certain keywords, if you want a high traffic website with maximum visibility and conversions, then you need a deep link building strategy.
Building links to deep pages is going to take time, however it is worth it, below is a list of techniques I use to gain deep links;
Write Viral Content
First and foremost whatever you write needs to be link worthy, visitors that read need to motivated to share it and link to it. Write something controversial, something news breaking or an interesting research piece, check out my article on creating link worthy content.
An important aspect to all of this is making sure your visitors can easily share the content.
Social Media
Kind of following on from the last point, social media is a big part of getting links to deep content, not only will you get links from people who read your content but will also get links from digg, stumble and twitter etc….
I have to say that links from social sites are not as powerful in terms of ranking; however it can still suggest a page is popular and give it a PR boost.
Blog Carnivals
Many webmasters have stopped using them and that is a real shame, as they are not only a good source of links but also assist in producing great resources. Submit your articles to relevant carnivals and you will receive strong links back to the deep pages of your site; this is a technique I have often used and have had great success with.
Articles
Yes, article marketing still works and why not use them to link to the deeper pages of your site. The best type of directories are ones that allow links in the content. Check out goarticles and a blog directory I like to use My Article Network.
Again these are not the most powerful links but you have the added value of being able to anchor the linking text.
Internal Linking
Yes links from your own pages do count and if you use your anchor text smartly they can actually be quite powerful. I like to use a related posts plugin which naturally links up pages but often refer back to posts from more recent content, always anchored with a target key phrase.
Squidoo/Hubpages/Blogger
Use these free platforms to create snippets of your posts and link back to them again anchored with the target keyword. I use this sparingly and not for every post as it can look a little spammy, however if you have a post that is already ranking and needs an added boost, go for it.
Reciprocal Linking
If you are a regular SEO wizz reader you will know I am not a big fan of reciprocal links; however I have found them to be beneficial on deeper pages. When you write about a subject, search the web for something similar, another webmaster may agree to exchange links if the two pieces of content complement each other.
My usual strategy is – Write something link worthy (when I can) – Share it – Write an Article – Submit to a blog carnival. I have over 50 internal pages that are PR2 and above which I have gained by using the methods I have explained.
Try it you might be surprised.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Tim,
You know I’m a fan of Blog Carnivals as I have said here before. I think a lot of people don’t use them because they don’t bring much traffic. That perhaps is true, but it’s the backlink that is the biggest benefit.
One to add – but is much more effort – guest posting. Having a guest post on some high profile sites is an excellent way to get backlinks.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
To be honest I don’t know many link building methods that drive loads of traffic except and maybe viral content and the one you mentioned guest posting. I should do more guest posting I am just content greedy
I know many bloggers who swear by it and manage to build 5000 subscribers in the first year of blogging, I just like the idea of having any quality content on my own domain. Plus my aim is not to build readers (even though I like having readers and people to share ideas with) my aim is to increase search traffic, thats where the profit is, readers won’t be a problem when I am ranking in the top five for a mega competitive term 
Can I ask: what are “Deep pages” versus non Deep pages ?
Also, in your references, and elsewhere, is there a difference between “Pages” and “Posts”?
If so, could you define them please?
Thanks Tim.
Hi Jim,
All I mean by deep pages is pages that are not your homepage, pages that are deeper than the top level domain. Pists and pages can be pretty much the smae thing and optimised in the same way. The only difference is post tend to be filed in date order and archived accordingly.
I also got your comment on the article marketing and will reply via email. Sorry for the delayed response, things have been a little manic
Thanks Tim for a great post (and thanks Andrew for tweeting about it)! I’m heavy on internal linking and social media, and of course trying to put out viral content. I’m also building links via Squidoo, HubPages and alike, but also sparingly as you mentioned in the post too – in fact I create unique content on those sites “just for fun” and to try something different most of the time, but that’s a bit off topic for deep linking.
I gotta start investing my time for article marketing a bit and also start getting into more blog carnivals. That in addition to the guest blogging Andrew mentioned, I’ll have my hands full with all this, but that’s what makes marketing / link building so much fun; and the rewards scale based on the work and effort you put in.
Hi Antti,
Thanks for your comment and you are spot on. Promoting a site is a stressful task, it is also a very long term porcess so you have to monitor your rank, traffic and ROI just to keep you motivated. Article marketing is good, however make it unique and don’t over distribute, unless your spinning the articles. Blog carnivals produce powerful links not only to deep pages but your homepage also.
Antti
Nice to see you over here and I’m pelased someone takes notice of my Tweets!
Andrew
Do you use any plugin for internal linking of pages? If yes, which one? I have tried seo smart link but i am not satisfied with its working (or may be i am not smart enough to understand it). How hubpage can help us? Thank you for your time. If there is any other plugin like seo smart link then let me know.
Hi Ricky,
The only plugin I use is “contextually related posts” plugin, it links posts together based on titles and post content, I find this acts a good internal linking tool. I also like to use a recent post and popular post widget. These help give new pages a PR boost and my popularposts higher rankings.
I use the MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate plugin. It’s not free but you can use it for automatically linking to other blog posts.
Andrew
Just spent last 30 minutes reading your articles and some great content which i think a lot of people could benefit from reading. Agree totally with internal linking as have numerous internal PR3 pages that have no external links to them. From one of your other articles would seem to make sense to use these for occassional external reciprocal linking.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it.
If you run or have similar content on deep pages as that of another site then I see no reason why you shouldn’t spark up some dialogue and exchanging links pointing at valuable information, even hooking two pages up with a reciprocal link. However if you are going to exchange links I would always recommend taking possible traffic returns into consderation as link juice is guaranteed to be low.