Limiting On Page Links
-
Right now, we have about 160 or so links on the home page. It's been recommended that we keep it to under 100, though that's not as big of a deal as it once was.
Is it helpful to make a bunch of those links "nofollow" in order to preserve link juice? Is it going to make a difference, or be at all helpful? I assume it won't be harmful, especially as a bunch of them are to the same page but on different sections of the page.
Would live your advice and thoughts! Thanks!
-
Brent and Syed are correct - nofollow no longer preserves link-juice. As for the 100-links "rule", it's really just a guideline. I discuss it in depth here:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-many-links-is-too-many
It's really a balancing act - the more links you have, the less love each link gets. It's not just SEOs - it's true for visitors, too (as Ryan pointed out). More options isn't always a good thing.
The trick is that the balance really depends a lot on the site. I've seen sites with 160 links that were well-designed with ample authority to make that work. I've seen others with 80 links where it was a complete mess.
It's also important to note that links to the same Page B on any Page A are discounted by Google - so, if you have a link in the navigation and then a link to that same page in the content and footer, the 2nd and 3rd links are basically ignored. We still count them as part of the 100, but Google doesn't in most cases. It's a little tricky, since Google probably views navigation links differently from contextual (in-page) links, but the rule still generally holds. Only one link to any Page B from Page A is going to get counted.
-
Thanks everyone. I really appreciate all your help!
-
Making links 'nofollow' to preserve link juice is a thing of the past. As of now, the "link juice" that you think you 'saved' just vanishes into thin air. Meaning, if you do use 'Nofollow' on links, you won't be saving it and passing it on to others.
100 links on page is just a broad suggestion for most websites. Our website have 180 links on homepage and we rank pretty well.
-
Even if you make the links nofollow, you will still lose link juice.
Just focus on putting your best links towards the top.
Here is a great post explaining why you still will lose link juice.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-maybe-changes-how-the-pagerank-algorithm-handles-nofollow
-
That will be helpful to preserve your link juice, but it won't make the site easier to navigate for your users. Ideally you want a "flat" and "wide" site architecture. Inbound.org recently had an article on this exact topic.
I'm not sure no-following those duplicate links is going to do a whole lot, other than spread your "link juice" more evenly around your site. For example, if 60 of your 160 links are duplicated (meaning theres another link going to a different anchor on the same URL), that means those 60 pages are getting hosed with link juice twice, and your other 40 pages with only 1 link will get half as much of it. If each URL has only 1 followed link from the homepage, then your homepages link juice will flow more or less evenly across all the pages.
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
-
Having 200 internal links on a page...is always bad?
I have an e-commerce site with a very important page that have over than 200 links...I have read in various sites that is bad to have too much links in page...what do you think? This is one of the most important pages in my site = general product page. Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | Maximilian210 -
Homepage On-page Optimization
How do you all handle homepage optimization, if you (or a client) offers a variety of services? Our homepage has the strongest link profile of any of our pages, but it lists all the areas of law we cover. Therefore, it has too many keywords and none really rank well. Should we just pick our most profitable areas and optimize for that? www.kempruge.com in case anyone would benefit from looking at the actual page. Thanks, Ruben
On-Page Optimization | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
E-commerce On Page Concern - Links and Anchor Text
Hi, how you doing? I have a set of very specific questions or concerns about anchor text and linking on an e-commerce category page. I was wondering if you could give your opinions and counsel. I own an e-commerce store about steel construction products. I have several category and product pages. One example of my categories is this. URL http://aceromart.com/Losacero-25-Ternium.aspx My concerns or questions: I have several technical specs or sheets. Which i include the link on the right part in "Informacion Adicional". How should i link those? I am bit worried on the anchor text. Should i use something like [download "product" technical sheet] or just [technical sheet of product] . I dont want to cannibalize, but i also want to appear as descriptive as possible. what would you recommend? The same thing happens on my videos. How should i link my videos? Is there a best practice? **what would you recommend. ** Thanks in advance for your opinions!
On-Page Optimization | | JesusD0 -
Changing the url of a page
Hello. I would like to change the url of a page. It currently has very few inbound links. I would set up a 301 redirect to the new url. Is there anything else I should take into account before changing the url? Is there a downside to changing a url? Do inbound links carry the same value when a 301 redirect is involved? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | nyc-seo0 -
Cannibalizing link
this is what the reports states :Cannibalizing link"Red & Color Roses", "Red roses", "Black Baccara Roses\rBlack And Red Roses\rStarting at: $ 0.72 per Rose", "Black Magic Rose\rDark Red Black Rose\rStarting at: $ 0.96 per Rose", "Forever Young Roses\rRed Rose Flowers\rVelvety Deep Red\rStarting at: $ 1.16 per Rose", "Freedom Roses\rRed Rose\rStarting at: $ 0.66 ¢ per Rose", "Madame Delbard\rRed Wedding Rose\rStarting at: $ 0.66 per Rose", "Night Fever Roses\rTraditional Roses\rRomantic Red Roses\rStarting at: $ 0.66 per Rose", and "Red Paris Roses\rDark Red Rose\rStarting at: $ 0.72 per Rose"ExplanationIt's a best practice in SEO to target each keyword with a single page on your site (sometimes two if you've already achieved high rankings and are seeking a second, indented listing). To prevent engines from potentially seeing a signal that this page is not the intended ranking target and creating additional competition for your page, we suggest staying away from linking internally to another page with the target keyword(s) as the exact anchor text. Note that using modified versions is sometimes fine (for example, if this page targeted the word 'elephants', using 'baby elephants' in anchor text would be just fine).RecommendationUnless there is intent to rank multiple pages for the target keyword, it may be wise to modify the anchor text of this link so it is not an exact match. the questions is then why having those links on that page hurts, when we need the links to take the costumer to the color of red roses they want.
On-Page Optimization | | globalrose.com0 -
I have a client where every page has over 100 links
Some links are in the main navigation (it has a secondary and tertiary level) and some links are repeated in the left navigation. Every page has over 100 links if crawled. From a practical standpoint, would you (a) delete the 3rd-level links (or at least argue for that) or (b) rel='nofollow' them? From a usability standpoint, this setup works as they are almost one click from everything. From a crawl standpoint, I see some pages missed in google (the sitemap has over 200 links). Looking for the best on-page current SEO advice to set these guys on the road to success.
On-Page Optimization | | digimech0 -
Which redirect to use when redirecting to https page from http page
I have one form under https which is redirected from the regular http page. this site was not made by me and I am trying to understand if the way it was redirected using 302 redirect is a problem Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | ciznerguy0 -
Internal links
Hi, I am working on a project with very few really important pages - its now about 20 pages and this number will not increase to more than 30 by the end of the year. Today the majority of these Pages is 2 clicks away from the Homepage for navigational reasons. Now I am wondering: 1. If I should set links from the Homepage directly to these Pages to pass more juice?
On-Page Optimization | | Naturalmente
2 If you would suggest so - how would you recommend me to do this in Terms of usability and SEO? thanks in advance for your help.0