Why shouldn't internal links help with optimization? Most sites are going to be more honest about their own content than about other sites' content anyway. If you're going to allow links to pass anchor text, you should definitely allow internal anchor text to work. It requires the least amount of vetting.

Internal linkns should and do help with opimitisation, anything that establishes relevance is going to help you, but it's not going to get you a high ranking if you're up against serious competition who have good quality relevant IBLs from authoritative sites, it's just not enough.

It's cheesy but cheesy will work very well in the absence of any serious competition.

BB

OK I just watched Matt's video. I think these are aimed at novice level webmasters so Matt keeps it simple. Overly simple. I frankly disbelieve what he says. I think he has to tailor his description of the reality to what might be grasped by the novice. It limits him. Just my thoughts.

BB

Did you consider if you'd rank for that without the internal link? If you're the only site that has that phrase on it, you could still rank with or without the link.

This is a great (and old) topic, but I still think that it is important to add the anchor text link from other pages of your website, unless it hurts the user experience.

For instance, you may want to have the "Home" text in your main navigation but in the bottom footer, it may make sense to add in the anchor text. Again, my thought is if it confuses your site visitors then the internal link building aspects are not worth it.