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
-
Listing and Linking Brands from Homepage
We have the popular brands that we sell listed on our homepage. We currently have them in just plain text at the moment but we want to know if it would be best to: Leave them in plain text Link each to the most relevant page on our website Link each out to the actual brands website Link some to internal page, others out to brands website, some blank Not have a list of brands We do have a webpage that lists all of our brands but there are hundreds we carry so we narrowed down the 40 most popular known brands that people will be looking for on the homepage. Thanks for your help!
On-Page Optimization | | petsofoz0 -
Internal links are not indexed of the website
Some internal links are indexed and some not of the same page of the website, what is the so and what is the reason behind?
On-Page Optimization | | renukishor10 -
Use of trademarks in tags and text
Does Google spider read registered trademarks (the 'R' or 'TM') or do these marks impede anything if they are featured in meta tags or text?
On-Page Optimization | | KnutDSvendsen0 -
Internal Links
I have a page that I am working to rank. Open Site Explorer shows that I have 69 internal links and a competitive site (ranked #4) has 822 internal links. The page I am looking to rank is on my main navigation menu so it should have an incoming link from every page on my site. My site is 6 years old and has 497 pages indexed according to Google Webmaster Tools. What do I need to do to improve the number of internal links that are being recognized?
On-Page Optimization | | CoachingToolbox0 -
Google Drop
I started using SEOMOZ due to a sudden and huge drop in Google for two main keywords (hair bows and baby headbands). Our site (BloomingBows.com) has held a top three spot for years with these words and then in the last few months has dropped down on the first page and now they are completely off the charts. Is there any insight as to why? Also, we have been very active using the data from here in the last week or so to clean up and improve anything listed, but I am still seeing keywords drop into the 40 - 60 position and our traffic is drying up. Starting to panic and wondering if I am missing something or going about this in the wrong way. ANY insight is appreciated at this point!! Thank you!!
On-Page Optimization | | bloomingB0 -
To use a fdqn or relative address in an internal link or not
Is it better to use my fdqn of http://1stclassdriving.co.uk/ or ~/ or ../ and then page name address for internal links or not? or does it just not matter for seo rankings?
On-Page Optimization | | brianw100 -
Landing page content and link distribution
Hey there fellow mozers, Need some advice, one of my clients asked us about the best way to distribute their content: number of restaurants per page, links and footer in their Landing pages. Here are 2 examples of what I mean: http://www.just-eat.es/adomicilio/madrid http://www.just-eat.es/adomicilio/pizza Thanks a lot!
On-Page Optimization | | Comunicare0 -
Link anchor text in list menus
Obviously Google likes descriptive anchor text. At least the first version on the page. But suppose you had a list of scrap yard depots on a hover site menu, would you go for the person friendly nested list, so Scrap Yard Depots Newcastle Chester Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Or the presumably more Google friendly; Scrap Yard Depots Newcastle Scrap Yard Chester Scrap Yard Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Scrap Yard
On-Page Optimization | | JamesFx0