Max # of Products / Links per Page on E-Commerce Site

[AndrewY]

We are getting ready to re-launch our e-commerce site and are trying to decide how many products to list per category page.  Some of of our category pages have upwards of 100 products.  While I'd love to list ALL the products on the root category page (to reduce hassle for customer, to index more products on a higher PR page), I'm a little worried about having it be too long, and containing too many on-page links.

Would love some guidance on:

• Maximum number of internal links on a page

• If Google frowns on really long category pages

• Anything else I should be considering when making this decision

Thanks for your input!

[SlavaRybalka]

You are welcome.

Here is what I found for you:

http://www.casedetails.com/2011/02/10/what%E2%80%99s-the-right-number-of-outbound-links/

I regularly see pages with tons of outbound links that have much trust. However, in your case, I would recommend to focus more on your visitors' impression. CTR and time on site are also important. If your site is cluttered with links - they will feel confused and leave.

[ResslerMotors]

-Maximum number of internal links on a page

Depending on how powerful your site is, I would suggest keeping it around the 100 links mark per inventory pages; at least initially.  If you offer the ability to see more products at once that will keep all of your customers happy.  However, the fewer links per page, the more power you send down to your product pages.  If you start building links to these product pages, though, that could become irrelevant - depending on competition.  If you still need to give extra boost to specific products, look for ways to link them internally from other pages.

-If Google frowns on really long category pages

From what I read, Google doesn't really consider the navigation pages to be very valuable content.  However, I would only be concerned with that if you were trying to rank your search pages.  So, I would focus on what your potential customers would want.  If you feel like you need to rank for a specific phrase, generate a landing page that leads into that specific inventory search.

-Anything else

I would suggest testing multiple designs.  It's easy for us to tell you what you should do, but it's better to hear it from your visitors.  Also, don't spend a lot of effort trying to get a specific search to rank, instead create a landing page for that product category, which will then lead into your search.  You will have a lot of unique content on there, and your customers expect to see a landing page.

[AndrewY]

Slava,

Thanks for your reply.  I'm still very curious if there is a recommended limit to the number of internal links on a page.  If anyone could comment on this, that would be appreciated.

[SlavaRybalka]

1. your site should have a very simple, tree-like structure

2. your visitors should get to the product page in 3 or less clicks

3. you don't want to have tons of links of product pages on your main page, see #1

4. the more pages with unique content you have - the better

5. the bigger the page - the slower the loading speed. Keep that in mind, you want as fast loading pages as possible.

6. for the rest - use common sense. Imagine you are a visitor of your website. Do you like what you see?