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For a web page to perform well, in search results, I understand it needs to tick many boxes. To name a few:

  • Provide, regular, quality content;
  • Earn Back links, from reputable sources;
  • Link out to reputable sources;
  • Ensure page load speeds are kept to a minimum as well as Bounce Rates etc.

If a Child Page ticks all the right boxes, and then ranks well, does the Parent Page benefit from its success?

More specifically ...

Context:

Let's assume I have created the following site Hierarchy:

Site Hierarchy

I then implement the Breadcrumbs feature, in order to internally link the Parent Page to its Children Pages and vice versa.

Whilst the Children Pages are unique, they have a common denominator ... 'Televisions'. As such, would this reinforce to search engines, that the Parent Page is about Televisions? As such, helping it to compete for search queries, consisting of the keyword 'Televisions'?

Back links:

Then, lets assume that ...

  • HD Televisions: Has 10 Back links;
  • Budget Televisions: Has 5 Back links;
  • Widescreen Televisions: Has 9 Back links;

This totals 24 Back links. Would I be right in thinking that the Parent Page, would receive some accumulate benefit from these 24 Back links? If so, would I be right to assume the weighting of these 'secondary Back links' would be less for the Parent Page than for the Children Pages? As such, a Child Page would never be able to have more Back links, than its Parent Page, since the sum of the Parent Page's Back links would be: Primary Back links + Secondary Back links?

Scenario:

Using the Hierarchy above, lets assume that the following search queries are performed:

  1. "Televisions"
  2. "Offers on Budget Televisions"

Would I be right in thinking that the Televisions Page would rank for all the above search queries? The reason being that not only does it have a Television focused page but benefits from its own Back links as well as the Back links of its Children Pages?

In this case, the Televisions Page would rank the highest for the first search query?

As for the second search query, would I be right to think that the Budget Televisions Page would then rank the highest? The reason being that whilst the Televisions Page has a greater collective Back link profile, the Budget Televisions Page is focused around the term Budget, which is more relevant to the search query. Its Back link profile more likely to focus on budget terms too.

Since the Parent Page has received the collective benefit of its Children Pages, would Budget Televisions then receive a return of that collective benefit; in particular for the term Television. In other words, search engines ranking the Child Page, with the Parent Page 'giving it an SEO boost', to help it compete with 3rd party websites?

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  • What is your link structure? Do your child pages link to the parent page? Jun 20, 2018 at 9:55
  • @StephenOstermiller: Yes. Primarily, via Breadcrumbs.
    – Craig
    Jun 20, 2018 at 10:14

1 Answer 1

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This question is not about SEO but about ranking in search results pages of search engines.

If a page has a lot of traffic and it links to another page inside the same domain, it can push the latter higher in the search results pages. This is not a SEO boost. The SEO score of the page that receives the link is not raised, what is raised is its ranking in search engines' results.

So, to answer your question, if page A (or more, but for this example let's say one) links to page B and page A has a lot of traffic, then the SEO of page B is not raised, however page B receives a better (higher) ranking in the search results' pages.

A good SEO score for page B could push it higher on its own. A good SEO score for page A could push both pages higher, since A links to B and if A ranks high then it is more probable B will get more traffic.

Multiple pages that link to one parent category will certainly push it higher in search results, but this is not a SEO benefit, merely the way authority works.

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  • Thanks for your answer. As well as pages helping to raise each other's SERPs, do they specifically help with context? For example: Would a Child Page, entitled 'Budget Televisions', help boost the Parent Page's relevancy about Televisions; thus helping it rank for short tail search queries about Televisions? Assuming the Child Page links back to the Parent Page of course.
    – Craig
    Jun 20, 2018 at 13:27
  • Search engine optimization means mostly to rank high in search results.
    – marcanuy
    Jun 20, 2018 at 13:30
  • @Craig Yes. As I said, if your page A has traffic and it links to page B, then page B gets a boost also. But this boost has nothing to do with pages B's SEO, it is about page A's "weight" in SERPs.
    – Prinny
    Jun 20, 2018 at 15:02
  • @ΣπύροςΓούλας: Great. Thanks for reaffirming some of my preexisting thoughts. :-)
    – Craig
    Jun 20, 2018 at 15:09

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