To subnav or NOT to subnav... that's my question.... :)

[JamesO]

We are working on a new website that is golf related and wondering about whether or not we should set up a subnavigation dropdown menu from the main menu.

For example:

GOLF PACKAGES
  >> 2 Round Packages
  >> 3 Round Packages
  >> 4 Round Packages
  >> 5 Round Packages

GOLF COURSES
  >> North End Courses
  >> Central Courses
  >> South End Courses

This would actually be very beneficial to our users from a usability standpoint, BUT what about from an SEO standpoint? Is diverting all the link juice to these inner pages from the main site navigation harmful?  Should we just create a page for GOLF PACKAGES and break it down on that page?

[AlanBleiweiss]

Whether you include the sub-nav in the site-wide navigation as drop-downs or not, make sure that you also have that sub-nav as on-page links (such as in a side-bar) specific to each section.  So that only that sections page links will then be on all of the pages just within that section, without the drop-down needing to be used. This ensures proper attribution and relationship queues for SEO.

Having said that, this issue is widely debated in the industry.  I've seen arguments on both sides claiming they have proof that one or the other of your choices was better.  Personally, I've always taken the approach that SEO should always be balanced with usability.  So when this question comes up I don't tell clients to kill the site-wide drop-downs.  Instead, I focus on other refinement (like the section by section dedicated side-bar links, and proper breadcrumbs, and in-content links, and so forth).  And that has always gotten my clients solid results.