Internal Linking | Site Architecture & Impact of PANDA

[sanar]

Recently, an SEO told me about a problem with my site architecture. Before I take any action, I would like some advice on this. May be this is basic for may people who read this.

My e-commerce site has over 400 pages - all of which are regularly updated. I sell 4 products and all 400 pages have an image (which says "subscribe now") clicking on which gets the user to the subscription/payment page. Many pages have 3 images on the same page (mostly because these pages are huge with more than 2000 words on each page and they require a lot of scrolling down, so we placed the "subscribe now" button at the top, middle and end of page).

Now effectively this means that there are over 1000+ images pointing to the subscription/ payment page. (1) I have been told that I should either remove these or put a "nofollow" on these images/subscribe now buttons. Should I do either?

Similarly, I have a legal disclaimer at the end of each page with a link to a detailed disclaimer page (this appears once under each page) followed by a standard boilerplate language (which I think will be about 15% of the total page content).

(2) Should I use image for the language instead? Does it count as duplicity of content?

Note: All redirects and pages are on the same/ my own domain.

[sanar]

Thanks Tom. Sure that helps.

[TommyTan]

Hi Rajat,

In response to your duplicity content for your legal disclaimer, since it is only a small amount of text and it's for legal purposes, although it is duplicate but it wouldn't hurt your website.  Duplicate content in general shouldn't hurt much unless it is really spammy then Google might take manual action.

http://www.mktdojo.com/duplicate-content-wont-hurt-unless/

Hope this helps

[crackingmedia]

Hi Rajat,

I don't think you need to be concerned about the these links all going to the same landing page. Essentially, it is a navigation button that points people to a page. The same thing, albeit not as an image typically, is true of an item on a menu, e.g. to an About Us page. That menu link will appear on every page as it is part of the main menu system for the site. Your subscription button is really no different in terms of helping users get to where they need to go to.

Peter

[sanar]

Thanks Peter. The landing page (for all these image links) does not give any more information per se. Having said that, the landing page informs the user about how to proceed in case they need more information.

To elaborate - the landing page details what the user will get once he subscribes to the product. The product is then delivered via email once the user signs up. So I would like to keep the images/call to action button so the user can know how he can get more information which is not available unless he goes to the landing page and signs up.

I am tempted to keep the images as is. One more thing, I can actually put a no-follow on all images as I am not trying to promote the landing page. The images in my opinion are really meant to make navigation easy. But I am worried with this whole 1000+ image buttons guiding to the same landing page.

[crackingmedia]

Hi Rajat

In terms of your site having 1000+ images in reality it is just one. In my view, if your pages are 2000+ words long then the re-use of the subscribe button shouldn't be a problem. All I would say on that is does that button need to appear on every page or just some types of pages? Only use it where needed.

Yes you could add a nofollow link but again ask yourself why the button is there. Is it there just as a call to action for users or does the page it directs to have more related information and therefore more value to Google to index and provide extended information. If just a call to action then probably best to make the links nofollow and just have follow links on one page.

On the legal disclaimer, I say keep it as text. If the repeated content is small then it isn't an issue.

I hope that helps,
Peter