Boosting “Stuck” Content: A Link Equity & Anchor Text Strategy
Client: An established publisher blog in the “finance” (YMYL) niche.
Challenges We Faced
The client had a few “power” articles that attracted 80% of their backlinks, but the rest of their site was weak:
“Stuck” Money Pages
Their high-intent “best of” (commercial) pages were “stuck” on page 2.
No Link Equity Distribution
They had 10 “power pages” (DR 60+) with 100+ backlinks, but these pages were not linking out to their other relevant articles.
Weak Anchor Text Optimization
The few internal links they had used generic anchor text like “click here” or “this article.”
Low Authority on “Money” Pages
Their commercial pages had no authority and couldn’t rank.
Orphaned Commercial Pages
Many money pages had no internal links pointing to them, leaving them with low authority and poor rankings.
Unlock Your “Stuck” Content
“Are your best articles stuck on Page 2? Our Link Equity Distribution service will funnel power from your strong pages to your ‘money’ pages.”
Our Approach – How We Solved These Challenges
Comprehensive Internal Link Audit
We used Ahrefs’ “Top Pages by Links” report to identify their 10 “power pages.”
We used Google Search Console’s “Links” report to confirm which pages had the fewest internal links.
Link Equity Distribution Strategy
We audited the 10 “power pages” and added 3-5 new, contextual internal links from each one, pointing to the “stuck” money pages.
On-Page Anchor Text Optimization
We replaced all generic “click here” anchor text with keyword-rich anchors.
Old: “Click here to read our review.”
New: “Check out our review of the best [product].”
Keyword & Anchor Text Research
We created a map to ensure the anchor text we used exactly matched the primary keyword of the target page.
Results
| Metric | Before | After | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Ranking (of “Money” Pages) | Position #16 (Page 2) | Position #5 (Page 1) | +11 spots |
| Organic Traffic (to “Money” Pages) | 8,000/mo | 30,000/mo | +275% |
| Internal Links (to “Money” Pages) | 5 (per page) | 25 (per page) | +400% |
Free Internal Link Audit
“Not sure how your link equity flows? Request a Free Internal Link Audit and let our internal linking optimization company find your power pages!”
Advice for Marketers & Brand Owners
- Link Equity Distribution is a “hidden” ranking factor. You must link from your high-authority pages to your “money” pages.
- Stop using “click here.” Anchor Text Optimization is a powerful, easy-to-fix signal.
- Use Ahrefs to find your “power pages” (most backlinks) and use them to boost your weaker pages.
- Your seo internal linking strategy is the best way to “un-stick” pages from Page 2.
Extra Factors That Made It Work
- The Link Equity Distribution from the “power pages” was the key.
- The new On-Page Anchor Text Optimization gave Google a clear signal of what the target pages were about.
- This strategy was fast, effective, and required no “new” content.
