Sometimes it seems that all you ever hear about is off-site optimization. Build inbound links! Send out press releases! Etc.! But if you’re not doing everything you can with on-site optimization, including developing a comprehensive internal link structure, then the off-site stuff can only do so much.
You have control over all those internal pages on your site, so why not make the most of them? There is a lot you can do from within to help your site climb the SERPs. Start by getting rid of irrelevant secondary keywords. Limit outbound links to 10 or less to keep each page sharply focused. If you have a page with way more than that many outbound links, consider dividing it into multiple pages (which you should optimize as well).
There’s a lot you can do to improve the strength of your anchor text too, like making sure your main keyword phrase shows up once on the page and in the title. You shouldn’t optimize any page for more than three keywords, and pages that are too long should probably be broken down into multiple smaller, more focused pages. And don’t stuff keywords. There are some keywords that will flow naturally onto a page with no trouble at all, but there are others that will appear “stuffed” even to the untrained eye, and these don’t help your position on the SERPs.
Nail down the on-page optimization and internal link structure, and you give your off-site optimization that much more of a boost.