Do links to my website improve all pages?

[Gavo]

I'm currently building links to my home page (through directories) and blog pages. However, none of these pages are actually targeted pages for main keywords.

In SEO, do links to any webpage of a site contribute to the improved rank of other pages?

[crackingmedia]

Hi Gavo, yes they will to an extent because some of the link value passed to your home page will be shared through the internal links you have on your home page (e.g. via menu navigation) to other pages on your site.

A word of caution though, which you may already be aware of, to be careful when gathering links to your site that they are from good quality sites with relevance to your site. Directory sites and blogs can be prone to being 'thin' in quality and can, if they themselves are seen as spammy sites, not help your site if you are receiving links from them.

I hope that helps,

Peter

[jonnyholt]

You're speaking of the difference between Page Authority and Domain Authority.  In my experience in regards to SEO, you should treat each page as though its a separate website, that needs good solid keyword targeting, rich content, links on social media, and links from other creditable sources.  Building a ton of links to your front page will give you slightly better Domain Authority but this doesn't help your interior pages rank as quickly (unless you have a Yelp like site with extremely high +90 DA).  If each of your interior pages is treated as important as your home page, you will see better PA and DA for each of those pages and almost certainly end up with higher SERP results.

On a side note, beware of directories.  Unless you are specifically campaigning for Local results, directories could be spammy, non-creditable links that actually hurt your sites authority.

Hope this helps.

[Chris.Menke]

Gavo,

It sounds like you might be going down the wrong path on your authority building. While the urge to do something concrete and countable like "link building" may be strong, you and your site will be better off if you resist. Spend time (and money if necessary) on figuring out how your site can "earn" links and then work to earn them.  The reason is that the kind of link building that you're asking about isn't worth your time, is not going to add value to your domain, and most importantly isn't going to add to your bottom line.

[Gavo]

Thanks Peter, Jon and Chris,

Really appreciate your warnings and watching my back. I think there may be some misunderstanding of my post (justifiably so as it was ambiguously written so my bad for that one). Currently I am engaging in a blog strategy, investing into well-researched and what I deem to be valuable blog content and attempting to promote posts through social media and social bookmarking to best earn links. Links from directories are going to the home page (thanks for the note Peter, Jon and Chris to be careful and conservative here. I'll look to be vigilant).

With this strategy though, I realise that no links are actually going to my core targeted pages (as none of these core targeted pages are either the home page or blog pages of my site). I realise that linking internally to these targeted pages through the home page and blog pages would be a sensible move, however, I'm wondering if 1-2 additional internal links from blog posts a month is really going to be enough? Especially considering link juice deteriorates rapidly when passed (so I hear). The only way I figured this commonly-prescribed strategy effectively working would be that a good blog, with strong natural linking, raises the tide of one's website (Domain authority), thereby raising all ships (value/authority of all pages). If this notion is accurate, it means that links to a page of a website has a positive effect, of some kind, on all other pages.

Accurate deduction or complete misconception?

[Chris.Menke]

Yes, links to your homepage and your interior pages will help the authority of the other pages and, if they're optimized well, can help with their rankings as well. Good links to a page of a website does a positive effect on all other pages.

I am missing something here though--what is the purpose of your "core targeted page"?  "I'm wondering if 1-2 additional internal links from blog posts a month is really going to be enough?"

Enough for what?

[Gavo]

Thanks Chris,

Core targeted pages are in this particular case the main services pages of the website.

Enough meaning able to achieve top page rankings for medium competitive keywords in 12 months or less.

[jonnyholt]

Gavo,

I really want to make sure I understand you so I'm going to use a quick example.  Say you have a hardware store website.  You have interior pages for plumbing, lawn care, etc.  You want each of those pages for the different departments to rank as best they can, correct?  I feel like the answered marked "Good" is actually not the best answer for what you are asking.

Well the best way to do that is not _jus_t by linking to your homepage.  So long as they are healthy links, having a website that blogs about your lawn care equipment and the amazing prices with a link to that page is going to help that page rank higher for that term.  If you just have them link to your frontpage which is directed toward the business name and "hardware" you are going to the long way to the top of google.

Yes, having tons of really good strong links to your front page will give your site more Domain Authority and trust and will help your interior pages, but not nearly as quickly as if you actually have multiple links to each of the pages.  Just taking a pages Page Authority from 1-2 to 25 with a really strong Domain Authority can get you to the front page so long as the page is optimized and has a good amount of trust and links.

[Chris.Menke]

Yes, if content on your site acquires new links, those links can help with the authority of your services pages as well, but it takes more than authority for those pages to rank.  On-page optimization for appropriate keywords is also important.

[BobAnderson]

I think the problem with this strategy is that you are at a big disadvantage compared to building links direct to the page, if we take for example you blog - how many links are on the page, now divide 100 / number of links on the page and this is how much power (%) you will gain compared to building the link direct.

The big gain with building links to a blog is that it looks more natural and with the right content can be much easier than a product page to build links, but it should be part of an overall strategy like most things in SEO.