This post is written after conducting experiments on interlinking. While there’s a lot written about interlinking, one of the key questions that we are asked is – how soon does the rank move?
The questions we had were:
| Question | Answer |
| Does interlinking work (We wanted to answer it again). | Yes |
| When does the results show up once we do the interlinking? | 24 hours |
| Does the backlink, traffic and other attributes of the source page matter? | Backlinks don’t, impression of source page does. |
| Does related keywords move up as a result of interlinking? | Yes |
| Will rank of source page go down after interlinking? | No |
| Is there a difference in the movement between high competition and low competition keyword? | Yes, ranks for lower competition keywords move quickly |
| Should an english page link to English page only and vice versa? | No |
Our SEO Interlinking Stratergy – How it Works
We have an in-house tool that allows us to get interlinking suggestions. We interlink based on Wikipedia’s model – one source page, links to one destination page – using only one keyword. We interlink as many pages as possible – without giving special consideration to important transaction pages. Because, we believe that interlinking – improves the page views, thereby indirectly improving search visibility. So interlinking has two benefits.
1. Our Interlinking Experiment & Result? It Works.
We conducted this experiment on 120 combinations – comprising of over 60 source pages. Some had 1 outgoing link, whereas some had over 3. We requested manual indexing on some pages, whereas for the others, we did not. We took both English and Spanish blog posts. We conducted this experiment on March 3rd, and at the time of the writing – i.e. 12th March, all except two source pages have been re-indexed. Below were the list of the keywords that we had in the dataframe.
| Keyword | Destination Page | Count | Change |
| app ranking | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/app-rank-tracker/ | 15 | -1 |
| app store optimization strategy | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/key-benefits-of-an-app-store-optimization-strategy/ | 14 | -2 |
| app store ranking | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/app-rank-tracker/ | 10 | 6 |
| app title | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/best-techniques-to-optimize-the-app-title/ | 10 | 2 |
| app store algorithm | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/may-2022-google-play-update/ | 9 | 25 |
| volumen de búsqueda | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/es/tips-para-aumentar-el-volumen-de-busqueda-de-keywords-para-un-aso-exitoso/ | 6 | 41 |
| app ratings | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/how-to-improve-ratings-and-reply-the-app-reviews/ | 5 | 3 |
| app screenshots | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/know-about-the-app-screenshot-guidelines-of-the-apple-app-store/ | 4 | -1 |
| app conversion rate | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/app-conversion-rate-optimization/ | 3 | 5 |
| localize your app | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/excellent-tips-for-app-localization/ | 3 | -16 |
| app conversion rates | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/app-conversion-rate-optimization/ | 2 | 13 |
| app store fees | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/es/effective-tips-to-understand-and-manage-app-store-fees/ | 2 | -2 |
| paid user acquisition | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/organic-and-paid-user-acquisition-strategies/ | 2 | 5 |
| app store optimization plan | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/key-benefits-of-an-app-store-optimization-strategy/ | 1 | 19 |
| app store optimization tips | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/ultimate-techniques-to-boost-your-aso/ | 1 | 40 |
| app store screenshot guidelines | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/know-about-the-app-screenshot-guidelines-of-the-apple-app-store/ | 1 | 3 |
| app user acquisition | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/organic-and-paid-user-acquisition-strategies/ | 1 | 15 |
| apple app store optimization | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/ultimate-aso-guide-what-is-app-store-optimization/ | 1 | 50 |
| aso tools | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/free-app-store-optimization-tool/ | 1 | 4 |
| featured apps | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/tips-to-get-your-app-featured-in-the-app-store/ | 1 | 48 |
| google play store app rankings | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/may-2022-google-play-update/ | 1 | 5 |
| increase app installs | https://nextgrowthlabs.com/best-proven-techniques-to-boost-your-app-installs/ | 1 | 9 |
Now, let’s assume +-3 ranks to be statistically insignificant. In that case, only one keyword went down, 7 were neutral – out of 22. Net rank movement? 271 – an average of 12 rank per keyword. Median was 5. Assuming that this activity could such an improvement, would we not choose it over some backlinks? Well, I would, on any day. Most of the source pages (Some did) – do not have backlinks. So, backlinks are not that relevant in this experiment.
2. Rank Movement Pattern After Interlinking
The ranks moved within 24 hour after the pages were interlinked. Post that, the keywords stabilised.
3. Did the backlink to the source page influence the results?
Backlinks did not. While most of the pages did not have backlinks pointing to them, but the ones who did, did not play a role in the rank movement. However, we will test it in further experiments.
Impressions on the source page – did influence the rank movement. So an interlinking via our rummy app page drove higher movement than our google play algorithm update page.
4. Related Keywords did Move Up Due to Interlinking
So in the above case, as app store algorithm keyword moved up, so did related keyword app store ranking algorithm. The more similar are two keywords, the higher is the co-relation of rank movements.
5. Will rank of source page go down after interlinking?
No, we did not see any downward trend in the source page impressions after interlinking. (If we notice any pattern, we will update this post).
6. Is there a difference in the movement between high competition and low competition keyword?
Low competition and volume keywords tend to move higher, and faster after interlinking.
7. Should an english page link to English page only and vice versa?
We saw movement in Spanish keyword volumen de búsqueda just as we did see a movement in English page. So, rank movement due to interlinking seems to be indifferent to the source or destination language.
If you are interested in conducting these experiments, please do reach out to us.