Link juice, A.K.A. Page Rank, is a crucial component of Google’s secretive algorithm today. And while it’s definitely not the be-all-end-all of ranking high in Google today; the truth is that if the page you’re trying to rank lacks Page Rank or “Popularity” it’s not going to rank, even if all your other SEO is perfect.
So what can you do about it?
First, you need to build high-quality backlinks. Because more links=more link juice= higher rankings.
Simple.
Second, you need to make some crucial site architecture changes, based on a “3 click from the homepage rule” (Note: I‘m talking about WordPress sites, which are by far most flexible).
This will let you utilize to its fullest the link equity you already have.
And that’s what this post is all about. Here are 3 ways to boost your SEO with site architecture changes, today!
#1- List Your Blog Categories in Your Menu
If your blog is of any meaningful age, you probably have at least a few dozens of blog posts published.
Right?
And those blog posts are categorized and those categories list your blog post in newest-to-oldest order.
But not only that, but they also help spread Page Rank and thru them, all your content is easily accessible to Google.
Which is great for rankings and SEO! But there’s a way to boost that effect and it is of course by placing your categories in your menu (via a drop-down menu)
Why exactly? Because your menu is ever-present and each page/post on your site links to it. That means that each page/post will link to all categories which then link to all posts on your site.
Say what?
Placing your blog’s categories in your navigation is an awesome way to evenly spread out PR so that your blog as a whole rank for as many long tail keywords as possible.
For example:
here’s how Arfa Nazeer does it. She masterfully links to her categories from her menu and thus achieves and sustains here high rankings. Because each blog post in a way supports all others.
Like true brothers should
Note: SEO aside, categories on the menu are also good for UX as people can easily find what they’re interested in.
#2- Use your power pages
Power pages are actually all pages on your site. They are powerful because, as I mentioned earlier, pages are in your menu and all posts and pages link to the entire menu.
I will give you two power page examples.
If you look at the menu here a Blogwithvk.com you will see a Testimonials page. That is a power page because all other post links to it and since it’s so high in the site’s architecture and HTML, Google knows it’s important.
Another example is my about page on my site. It also gets plenty of link juice which means it has plenty of link juice to share.
It is crucial to identify power pages because internal links from these carry the most weight. Meaning that when you want to rank your money page you will do good to link to it from all your pages.
That way you insure that a lot of that link juice flows directly to where it helps you the most.
In my case, I did it with my Wealthy Affiliate Review.
#3- Place Your Money Page in the Menu
If you have a page you want to rank really bad, then consider placing it in your navigation, top menu, so that link juice directly flows to it. I did it with my Wealthy Affiliate guide and have had some really good results with it.
The other benefit is that you can use keyword-rich anchor text for your navigation link.
How?
Simply go Appearance/Menu and change the navigation label.
Pro tip- If your money page is a post and not a page, you can still place it on the menu and you don’t need any plugins to do it.
Simply go to Appearance,/Menu and select from the “posts” tab.
Conclusion
Updating site architecture so you use every drop of link juice you already have is one of the best things you could to grow your blog.
Trust me, if you do these 3 hacks and your blog has at least some authority to its name (meaning it’s not a new blog, started yesterday) you will notice positive improvements across the board.
In other words- Where Page Rank flows- it grows.
Leave me a comment below, thanks:)
A great information Nikola Roza. I aware of this fact and started to follow this principle as directed by Neil. Placing Power Pages in the Navigation menu and listing important money-generating pages in the menu helps our audience to understand our blog purpose. These three simple hacks are really awesome that every blogger should go with.
You can add one more hack, that is, adding Search Box in the Menu (or) Sidebar (first position) because my blog is getting a considerable volume of the search every day.
Thanks for your thoughts and your comment Myilraj. Search box really is a useful feature if you have a lot of content on your site.
Thanks for publishing it, Vshwajeet.
It look great and I’m here to respond to comments and share.
Cheers!
Super tips Nikola. I love that money page tip. The thing with link juice is just a bit of work, planned out, can bring immense rewards.
Ryan
Hi Nikola and Vishwajeet, very informative piece. I do use those categories on my blog. When I read this the first time I thought you meant on the sidebar and then I re-read it this am and realized it was on the top pages of the website 🙂 Good to know. This is the first I’m hearing of a money page. I have to figure that one out on my site. Thank you for the tips Nikola.
I hope you both have a great day!
PS. Nikola, can you make the money page have a shorter title? Mine looks long in the pages area. Thanks!
Hi Lisa,
Yes, you can and it should be the short one targeting your main keyword.
For example, I checked Google incognito and you’re ranking #29 for Agora Pulse review. That is excellent.
Now I recommend two things to you.
First, you already put that page in your menu, which is great, but perhaps you should change your navigation label to “Agora Pulse Review- 2020 guide”. That is because that nav label is going to become your main anchor text for that post and you want to target your main keyword(s) with it. I suppose you’d like to rank for “Agora Pulse review” because people who search for that want to buy it and you can earn commissions.
Second, make sure you have “Agora pulse review 2020” in your SEO title and if you can in the H1 tag. These are very strong on-page signals to Google.
So once you do that you will have to wait 2-4 weeks for Google to recrawl your entire site and index your new menu link from each page and post.
So don’t expect immediate results.
But I’m positive you can expect great results because your site is already ranking highly; your site is authoritative and now that page will be super authoritative because everything on the site will link to it with that keyword-rich anchor text.
What’s more, that extra link juice will help it rank for every other keyword your post is indexed under (I’m sure there are hundreds).
How well does this work?
Well, a few months ago I was ranking for the term “Wealthy Affiliate Review” on the 16-the page of Google.
Then I added a menu link with keyword-rich anchor text (like you can see on my site) and for a week nothing happened (Google was then crawling my site).
On the eight day I woke up to see that my page was now ranking on the 4-the page of Google. It jumped twelve pages overnight.
And I know it was because of that nav link because I tested removing it and my page immediately fell to its previous position on 16-page.
So yeah, it works and I hope and think it will work for you.
And if it doesn’t all you have to do is remove that one page from your menu and all results you have now will return.
So you’re in full control.
So, make sure you report your results here in a month
Cheers!
Hey Nikola!
That’s a wonderful post. Really impressed with your money page link + power page tips. I seriously have to try this out! And, thanks for the mention. Appreciate that 🙂
Arfa
Thanks Arfa,
these tips really do work, especially when you combine and do them all. That’s when you get the most bang for your buck.