Too many links on page -- how to fix
-
We are getting reports that there are too many links on most of the pages in one of the sites we manage.
Not just a few too many... 275 (versus <100 that is the target).
The entire site is built with a very heavy global navigation, which contains a lot of links -- so while the users don't see all of that, Google does.
Short of re-architecting the site, can you suggest ways to provide site navigation that don't violate this rule?
-
Dr. Pete has a good post about this warning at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-many-links-is-too-many that may help you out.
-
How much damage does this issue really do?
I see many sites in our industry (enterprise software) whose pages are equally heavy with links. They still seem to enjoy a high page rank. Look at Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Red Hat...
Just wondering how this compares to other issues that would be easier to address.
-
I don't know what you mean that users don't see the links and Google does.
I mean that most of these links are on drop-down menus so they aren't visible unless someone hovers over the tab. My point was that the user experience isn't affected by the presence of all of these links on the page, even though it is a problem from an SEO perspective.
The page in question is: http://www.novell.com/products/groupwise/ -- but since we use the same global navigation across the entire site, every page on the site is getting the same SEOMoz warning about too many links.
-
I do think a navigation restructure is the way to do it and a way to better focus your link juice. No following certain links no longer works for internal site links - Google see's through that now.
Instead of your categories nav including a/or multiple sub cat nav links (im guessing thats how it currently works) on every page, inc the sub cat links on the main cat pages not as part of the main cat nav e.g. dont inc red widget, blue widget, green widget under the main 'widget' navigation, instead add links to red, blue, green widget on the main widget page. Hope that makes sense.
-
You should bucket the categories into 10-20 primary categories. If you have have lower level categories that are potential traffic drivers, you can feature a few select categories along the primary categories. Every link takes away Pagerank from the host page and too many links on every page will devalue the pages. It's hard to give clear directions without seeing the site,
I don't know what you mean that users don't see the links and Google does. Are you hiding links? That may penalize the site.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Shifting target keyword to a new page, how do we rank the internal page?
I have been targeting one keyword for home page that was ranking between the postilion 6-7 but was never ranking on 1st as there were 2 highly competitive keywords targeted on the same page, I changed the keyword to an internal service page to rank it on 1st, I have optimized the content as well but the home page is still ranking on 11th, how do I get the internal page rank on that keyword
On-Page Optimization | | GOMO-Gabriel0 -
Link flow for multiple links to same URL
Hi there,
On-Page Optimization | | doctecs
my question is as follows: How does Google handle link flow if two links in a given page point to the same URL? (do they flow link individually or not?) This seems to be a newbie question, but actually it seems that there is little evidence and even also little consensus in the SEO community about this detail. Answers should include source Information about the current state of art at Google is preferable The question is not about anchor text, general best practises for linking, "PageRank is dead" etc. We do know that the "historical" PageRank was implemented (a long time ago) without special handling for multiple links, as e.g. last stated by Matt Cutts in this video: http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-one-page-two-links-page-counted-first-link-192718 On the other hand, many people from the SEO community say that only the first link counts. But so far I could not find any data to back this up, which is quite surprising.0 -
Is it better to try and boost an old page that ranks on page #5 or create a better new page
Hello Everyone, We have been looking into our placements recently and see that one of our blog posts shows on page #5 for a popular keyword phrase with a lot of search volume. Lets say the keyword is "couples fitness ideas" We show on page 5 for a post /couples-fitness-ideas-19-tips-and-expert-advice/ We want to try and get on the first page for that phrase and wanted to know if it is better if we did one of the following: 1. Create a new page with over 100 ideas with a few more thousands of words. with a new url (thinking /couples-fitness-ideas) 2. Create a new page with a new url (thinking /couples-fitness-ideas) with the same content as the currently ranking post. We would want to do this for more freedom with layout and design of the page rather than our current blog post template. Add more content, let's say 100 more ideas. Then forward the old URL to the new one with a 301 redirect. 3. Add more content to the existing post without changing the layout and change the URL. Look forward to your thoughts
On-Page Optimization | | MobileCause0 -
Do follow links
Is it good(according to SEO) to give dofollow rel to external links of highly trusted websites from our content?
On-Page Optimization | | Obbserv0 -
How to rank well on 2 keywords - 2 separate pages or 1 combined page
Hi, I have a website about allergy. We ar developing new content, and through keyword research I have discovered that "dog allergy" and "cat allergy" are both very common searches. However, the cause, and symtoms are very alike for these 2 types of allergy so it would make sense to combine the two allergies on one page. So my question is: What do I choose to increase my chances to ranke the best I can for both "cat allergy", and "dog allergy"? Should I develop 2 separate pages for cat & dog allergy or should I do a combined page? (We would of course review the texts so no duplicate content/text would be used if we chose to have 2 pages) I would be so greatful for your advice!! Kind regards, Jeanette
On-Page Optimization | | Mylan-GDM0 -
When should I dofollow a link?
I know I should have all my affiliate links as nofollow but when should I dofollow a link? When will it HELP me to have a dofollow link? Right now - all my links are nofollow because I haven't figured out how to have nofollow and dofollow in the same blog post. Any info appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | dealblogger0 -
Help: my WordPress Blog generates too many onpage links and duplicate content
I have a WordPress Blog since November last year (so I'm pretty new to WordPress) and the effects on ranking for some keywords are really good. So I thought tag clouds are good. Crawl Diagnostics tell me now that I have too many onpage links for example my author page breaks the record: 256
On-Page Optimization | | inlinear
http://inlinear.com/blog/author/inlinear/ I think thats because there are links for each word in the tag cloud generated ... On this page (and many other pages) WordPress displays (teasers) the beginning of each post (read more ...) producing duplicate content and even new canonical tags.... The page titles are also too long because I installed "All in One SEO Pack" and now this plugin and wordpress itself mixes titles together ... But what can I do to avoid all this. Is there a PlugIn that can help... I think millions of blogs will have the same problems... I my blog yet has very few content. Thanks for your answers :))0 -
Too many 301 redirects to home page - is this possible?
If a site has a bunch of 404’s that are basically old URL’s that no longer work and point to pages or documents that don’t exist anymore - Can someone clarify if it’s a problem when fixing a bunch of these 404’s to point them all to the home page? so if there is not really anywhere else that is applicable for the old broken URL, is it really a problem to 301 old pages to the site home page? I have read some different things on this recently on some different sites, so I just wondered what the latest thinking on this was….thanks...
On-Page Optimization | | inhouseninja0