Web Design - Text links better than drop down menus?
-
Hello
So with reading a blog post by Bruce Clay - http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/seo-friendly-web-design/
It reads that it Is best for seo to use text links instead of drop down menus.
So I just wanted to ask you opinion.
-
Hi,
If you configure your drop-down menus for SEO by using the correct CSS technique (i.e. the links appear on the page but are activated with a hover, which I am sure you're referring to), this is fine for SEO purposes. Best to avoid hundreds and hundreds of links in drop-down menus (they can get cumbersome and bad for usability, and dilute the passed authority). If it's best for usability to have a huge drop-down but link numbers are concern, some sites use JavaScript for links that aren't important for SEO on "mega menus".
As a basic rule though, you will not suffer by having some navigational links in CSS-led drop downs.
-
Thank you for your valuable insights.
I have a lot to learn
-
If you're thinking strictly about how 'link juice' flows through a page, then yes - static links are the way to go. But you also have to ask yourself how easy it is for someone to find and click the links. The site still has to be usable. So yes, static text links are generally best - but one can still mess that up as well.
The page you mentioned has some pretty good points regarding basic UI/UX. If you do static links properly, more or less what was discussed in the article, you'll reduce page rank fragmentation and present a better experience. What's not to like?
If you're designing for multiple devices, functionality that calls for navigational hover actions isn't the best idea. So there's another point against drop down navigation. Also, if you look at this site, you'll notice there isn't a whole lot of drop down happening until you get to search functionality and tools.
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
-
Branded Product Dropping from 1st position. Why?
Hi All, I have a branded product that's always ranked 1st. It's a popular product which attracts the majority of our website's traffic. Now it's suddenly dropped from 1st to 20th. Can anyone advise me why this has happened? I've made no radical changes in the last month. keyword: Wattbike Atom Url:https://wattbike.com/gb/product/atom atom
On-Page Optimization | | WattbikeSEO0 -
How my website is dropping?
Hello there guys! My website www.ntcbrasil.com.br is dropping comparing to my competitors. My main keyword is: geotextil
On-Page Optimization | | ffbrunoff
And my main competitor is: www.mantasbrasil.com.br We have better and original content. We have better structure website with better SEO practice (so a i thought). I'm not able to find out what's making the difference between my website dropping and my competitors raking first. This is in google Brazil www.google.com.br If anyone could give me any direction i would appreciate. Thanks a lot!! Bruno Nunes0 -
Site Structure. Which is better?
Ideally, which model is better for site structure: 1. Homepage -> Categories -> Individual Pages (See example here http://www.wordtracker.com/attachments/bead-site-structure.gif) OR 2. Homepage -> Categories -> Sub-categories -> Indicidual Pages In the 2nd model, are the individual pages too far away from the homepage?
On-Page Optimization | | brianflannery0 -
Best way to nofollow affiliate links?
I don't "nofollow" affiliate links but I have quite a few. Doing them one by one would just be an impossible job. Would it be best to get a plugin that nofollows EVERYTHING? What would google prefer? I need to DOFOLLOW some links because those sites deserve it.
On-Page Optimization | | 2bloggers0 -
Several Links in Some Pages
Dear all, Our main site is a bussiness directory, and following some SEO advices, we are creating landing pages for each category, in order to optimize them for the keywords. Those landing pages have links to the listings related to them. Using the same idea, we have created pages related to the regions, and those pages include links to the listings located in them. The only problem that I see with that, is the number of links that some categories or regions could have. Is there a limit of recomended number of links per page, from a SEO perspective? We also have a main category page, that includes a list of all categories, and this page could also have a relatively high number of links. The pages have around 300 to 500 words, some include also images, some include videos. Many thanks for your help, Daniel
On-Page Optimization | | te_c0 -
Linking within Secondary Site
So we've got a secondary site that has quite a bit of authority & links that used to have all types of info on parasailing. All those pages are gone and homepage is now a salespage (management decision, not mine) Our main site sells a wide range of tours and activities and does have a page for parasailing. The secondary site uses the same template/navigation as our main site (again, not my decision). Do you think that's an effective way to send link juice to our main site? The secondary site has some pretty awesome high authority sites linking to it. I've considered 301'ing the whole site to our main site but it's got a really solid domain name and I'd like to take up 2 SERP listings (main and secondary site) Is there a better way to have double listings but still send a good amount of link juice?
On-Page Optimization | | SoulSurfer80 -
404 link | How to remove the link so it is not found?
My report has listed a few links with 404 errors. They are internal links but are not found. Is there a way to remove that link so it is not found again? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | SavingSense0 -
Is anchor text link juice passed in internal links?
Let's say I have www.bobswidgets.com. If I have "widgets for sale in tuscon arizona' be the anchor text on an internal link on www.bobswidgets.com/page1 which goes to www.bobswidgets.com/page2 - does the value of the anchor text (widgets for sale in tuscon arizona) get passed internally? External links pass the value of the anchor text but do internal links?
On-Page Optimization | | qlkasdjfw0