How to Get Out of Page Two Purgatory

Move keywords up to the first page and profit

There’s no worse place to be than page two in Google.

If you’re on page 57 then you can rest easy because the situation is hopeless (at least in the near term future).

But when you’re on page two you’re constantly thinking of what might be if the keyword would just move up a few positions.

The second page of the SERPs is a kind of purgatory where you’re close to the page one promise land but not quite there yet.

So how can you flex and bust out of page two?

Add internal links using the keyword as anchor text

Google has insanely strict standards when it comes to external links.

With external links you pretty much never want to use exact-match anchor text. If you overdo it, you’re going to hurt your rankings and run the risk of getting smacked down by a penalty from Big G.

Internal links are a whole different ball game. Google doesn’t expect you to “hide your tracks”.

Why would they?

It’s your own site. Using anchor text that’s relevant to the article is the most natural thing you can do. Linking using your own brand name would be insane and weird.

That’s why I recommend that 100% of your internal links use exact or partial keyword-match anchor text.

Use your page two keywords as internal anchor text.

Here’s an example: