Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Sitmap Page - HTML and XML
-
Hi there
I have a domain which has a sitemap in html for regular users and a sitemap in xml for the spiders.
I have a warning via seomoz saying that i have too many links on the html version.
What do i do here?
regards
Stef
-
Sorry for late reply guys. Great advice by both of you.
@ Alan, great display on how Page Rank flows. Great illustration which i totally could never explain to clients
-
220 links on a page is absolutely not too many on any level. Many of the highest ranked sites on the internet present more then 220 links.
The particular page is question is simply a sitemap, and the page is being offered to help users navigate the site. The VerizonWireless.com sitemap I shared has 370+ links on it.
The SEOmoz "warning" is a simple feature which will be set off on any internet page with 100+ links. The SEOmoz tool does not care how well those links are presented, whether they are footer links, whether they are on a content page, what the PA of the page is nor any other SEO factor. It is simply a >100 or not warning. As such, it offers very little value.
I am in the process of compiling a list of suggested features for the tool which will help improve it's usefulness. One of the feature recommendations I am proposing is to allow users to adjust the 100 count to any number they want. Each SEO can then choose to use the default 100 number, or use a number more suited to the particular site.
The link Alan shared is a nice explanation of PR flow. It is a nice page for learning PR, but with respect to this topic it over-complicates an otherwise very simple and straight-forward question. The simple point is, the more links on a page the less link juice will flow to each link.
The goals for any web page links should be as follows:
1. Ensure all links are useful for your site. For example, you probably want PR flowing to your most profitable product/service, and to your latest additions.
2. Ensure your links are actually used. Check analytics.
3. If a link is not used or not useful, remove it.
4. Along the lines above, your links should be presented in a very user-friendly manner. You don't want a page to look like a list of nothing but links as users will have a difficult time choosing what they want. An exception would be a sitemap.
With the above in mind, keep as many links as you see fit on the page. If it is 40, that is fine. If there are 250 links on the page, that is fine as well. When you start down a path of chasing numbers such as forcing your content into "500 words" or forcing your links into "100 maximum" you fall into a pit of SEO fallacies. You are not providing the best experience for your users nor SEO.
TL;DR - Provide your links in a manner which is visually appealing, non-spammy and helpful to users. Keep in mind your need to flow PR to important pages such as your money pages. Otherwise remove unnecessary links. Whatever that number of links is, so be it. Don't try to fit your links into a "I must be under 100" or any other number mindset.
-
too many according to google. make of it what you will, does not look like it is for any technial reason anyymore, but obviously there is a limit to how much of page they will crawl.
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-many-links-per-page/You see how page rank flows, having a lot of links on your home page works to your advantage. Using numbers from Googles original algo,
Assuming every page starts with 1PR, a page passes %85 of its link juice, so if you have 100 links that’s 0.0085 each. To 100 internal pages, making them 1. 0085each , now they all pass back 85% that’s 0.857225 each, x 100 = 85.7225 back to your home page, now we do the sums all over again and again till they numbers stay static. Now this calculation relies on the internal pages having no other links, so you are unlikely to get figures as good as this, but you get the idea.
See link for better explanation.
http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html check out calculator
Remember don’t stuff up your linking stuckture for the users just for the sake of page rank.I see it as like a golf swing after a lesson, if you try to do what you just learnt too much, you will get all stiff and un-natural, it’s better to swing naturally with what you have learnt in the back of your head.
-
Yes, ignore the warning.
It is possible to present 220 links in a neat, categorized manner. It is also possible to present 100 links as a jumble which is not user friendly.
You shared your presentation is similar to the example I shared which means it is user friendly so ignoring the warning is fine.
-
Nice, i really like that example that you gave. My one is similar and categorized too. Question still remains, do i ignore this warning for this page?
-
I have about 220 links
-
Wel how many do you have.
A quick way of checking is with IE, press F12, go to view menu, then link report
-
Your HTML sitemap is for users. It should present your links in such a manner as to be useful for users who are looking for a page on your site.
An example sitemap for a large site: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/sitemap.jsp
It does not contain a link to every last page. It is more of a helpful directory. I would suggest you adjust your HTML sitemap in a similar manner. Treat is as a page of links for users.
-
So do you think that i should ignore this warning for the sitemap html page?
-
Well have a look if you can move a few out, it is good to link to as many pages as you can from the home page for the sake of PR flow. but not go over the limit, Some say the limit is 100, some say 150
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
-
Customer Reviews on Product Page / Pagination / Crawl 3 review pages only
Hi experts, I present customer feedback, reviews basically, on my website for the products that are sold. And with this comes the ability to read reviews and obviously with pagination to display the available reviews. Now I want users to be able to flick through and read the reviews to help them satisfy whatever curiosity they have. My only thinking is that the page that contains the reviews, with each click of the pagination will present roughly the same content. The only thing that changes is the title tags which will contain the number in the H1 to display the page number. I'm thinking this could be duplication but i have yet to be notified by Google in my Search console... Should i block crawlers from crawling beyond page 3 of reviews? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Train4Academy.co.uk0 -
Should search pages be indexed?
Hey guys, I've always believed that search pages should be no-indexed but now I'm wondering if there is an argument to index them? Appreciate any thoughts!
Technical SEO | | RebekahVP0 -
Home Page Ranking Instead of Service Pages
Hi everyone! I've noticed that many of our clients have pages addressing specific queries related to specific services on their websites, but that the Home Page is increasingly showing as the "ranking" page. For example, a plastic surgeon we work with has a page specifically talking about his breast augmentation procedure for Miami, FL but instead of THAT page showing in the search results, Google is using his home page. Noticing this across the board. Any insights? Should we still be optimizing these specific service pages? Should I be spending time trying to make sure Google ranks the page specifically addressing that query because it SHOULD perform better? Thanks for the help. Confused SEO :/, Ricky Shockley
Technical SEO | | RickyShockley0 -
Are image pages considered 'thin' content pages?
I am currently doing a site audit. The total number of pages on the website are around 400... 187 of them are image pages and coming up as 'zero' word count in Screaming Frog report. I needed to know if they will be considered 'thin' content by search engines? Should I include them as an issue? An answer would be most appreciated.
Technical SEO | | MTalhaImtiaz0 -
What is the best way to find missing alt tags on my site (site wide - not page by page)?
I am looking to find all the missing alt tags on my site at once. I have a FF extension that use to do it page by page, but my site is huge and that will take forever. Thanks!!
Technical SEO | | franchisesolutions1 -
Splitting Page Authority with two URLs for the same page.
Hello guys, My website is currently holding two different URLs for the same page and I am under the impression such set up is dividing my Page Authority and Link Juice. We currently have the following page with both URLs below: www.wbresearch.com/soldiertechnologyusa/home.aspx
Technical SEO | | JoaoPdaCosta-WBR
www.wbresearch.com/soldiertechnologyusa/ Analysing the page authority and backlinks I identified that we are splitting the amount of backlinks (links from sites, social media and therefore authority). "/home.aspx"
PA: 67
Linking Root Domains: 52
Total Links: 272 "/"
PA: 64
Linking Root Domains: 29
Total Links: 128 I am under the impression that if the URLs were the same we would maximise our backlinks and therefore page authority. My Question: How can I fix this? Should I have a 301 redirect from the page "/" to the "/home.aspx" therefore passing the authority and link juice of “/” directly to “/homes.aspx”? Trying to gather thoughts and ideas on this, suggestions are much appreciated? Thanks!0 -
Home Page .index.htm and .com Duplicate Page Content/Title
I have been whittling away at the duplicate content on my clients' sites, thanks to SEOmoz's pro report, and have been getting push back from the account manager at register.com (the site was built here and the owner doesn't want to move it). He says these are the exact same page and he can't access one to redirect to the other. Any suggestions? The SEOmoz report says there is duplicate content on both these urls: Durango Mountain Biking | Durango Mountain Resort - Cascade Village http://www.cascadevillagehotel.com/index.htm Durango Mountain Biking | Durango Mountain Resort - Cascade Village http://www.cascadevillagehotel.com/ Your help is greatly appreciated! Sheryl
Technical SEO | | TOMMarketingLtd.0 -
Do I need an XML sitemap?
I have an established website that ranks well in Google. However, I have just noticed that no xml sitemap has been registered in Google webmaster tools, so the likelihood is that it hasn't been registered with the other search engines. However, there is an html sitemap listed on the website. Seeing as the website is already ranking well, do I still need to generate and submit an XML sitemap? Could there be any detriment to current rankings in doing so?
Technical SEO | | pugh0