Link conundrum - losing nav/footer links in mobile view
-
Hi Moz folks! I'm currently moving a site from being hosted on www. and m. separately to a responsive single URL. The problem is, the desktop version currently has links to important landing pages in the footer (about 60) and that's not something we want to replicate on mobile (mainly because it will look pretty awful.)
There is no navigation menu because the key to the homepage is to convert users to subscription so any distraction reduces conversion rate.
The footer links will continue to exist on the desktop view but, since Google's mobile-first index, presumably we lose these important homepage links to our most important pages. So, my questions:
-
Do you think there is any SEO value in the desktop footer links?
-
Do you have any suggestions about how best to include these 60-odd links in a way that works for mobile?
Thanks!
-
-
Hi, the first thing I would note is that a responsive design means you have the exact same content on the desktop and mobile versions - if you're considering serving different HTML to different users on the same URL this would be considered dynamic serving and you'll want to make sure you add the Vary-HTTP user agent header.
To answer your other questions:
1) Do you think there is any SEO value in the desktop footer links?
There is certainly some value, although how much is debatable - that would depend on how many total pages there are on the site, how much other content you have, and whether these pages are linked to elsewhere etc. You could test it by removing a handful of the links temporarily and see whether those pages see any sort of negative impact over 3-4 weeks. If you do this, make sure you do link to those pages from somewhere else on the site so they don't become orphaned.
2) Do you have any suggestions about how best to include these 60-odd links in a way that works for mobile?
I would suggest either leaving them in the footer in a collapsible div to help keep a clean look (maybe with your 5 or so most important links visible and a 'see more' option), or moving them to a hamburger menu on a mobile view.
Hope that helps!
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
-
What link would be better?
Hi Guys, Just wondering what would be better in this instance: finding an old post (with good authority) and getting a link from that old article or creating a brand new article and adding the link to that. Finding an old post (with good authority) and getting a link from that old article Creating a brand new article and adding the link to that. Both naturally link out to the page you want a link too. To me, number 1 as the page already has authority but then again number 2 since Google might place some weight to recency. Any thoughts? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | spyaccounts140 -
Embedding PDF previews and maintaining crawlability/link-equity.
One site that I'm working on has previously had a great deal of success from the pdf preview content on the site. The pdf previews are quite substantial and rank for many many long-tail terms that drive a reasonable amount of traffic back to the site to purchase the full version of the product. As part of a site redesign, the way the pdf previews are embedded/presented on the page is changing slightly: The proposed modal pop-up on the new site the code looks like thie: <object data="my-pdf-preview.pdf" type="application/pdf" style="width:100%; min-height:600px; max-height:100%;max-height:100%;"><embed src="my-pdf-preview.pdf" type="application/pdf"></object> Where as the old code looked like this: <object data="mt-pdf-previewpreview.pdf#view=FitH,50&scrollbar=1&toolbar=0&statusbar=0&messages=0&navpanes=0" <br="">type='application/pdf'
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DougRoberts
width='100%'
height='600'> It appears your Web browser is not configured to display PDF files. No worries, you can download the PDF file here.</object> Note: how previously the code contained a plain, standard link to the pdf document. My worry is that without this link, search engines won't a) be able to discover/crawl the pdf content or b) pass any link-equity to these pdfs. Does anyone have any experience/recommendations about this? I'd like to have some information before I request that they add a plain link to the pdf previews back onto the on-page content.0 -
What to do with Authoritative footer pages?
Alo everyone! The site I'm working on has had a homepage that essentially used the footer as the main form of navigation on the site and the PA of each of those pages reflects that. I'm helping them re-organize the site (I'm still a noob though), and was curious for some input on this particular situation. Some of the most authoritative pages are: 1. www.charged.fm/privacy - PA 29 2. www.charged.fm/terms - PA 29 My question: Is this just a consequence of previous mistakes that we live with, or is there something involving 301's and creation of new pages that could help us utilize the link juice on these pages. Or should we come up with ways to internally link to 'money' pages from these pages instead? Thanks for any input, Luke
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | keL.A.xT.o0 -
Linking and non-linking root domains
Hi, Is there any affect on SEO based on the ratio of linking root domains to non-linking root domains and if so what is the affect? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | halloranc0 -
Do links from twitter count in SEOMoz's Toolbar link count?
I am using the Chrome extension and looking at a SERP, when a page is said to have 2000 incoming links, does that include tweets with a link back to this page? What about retweets. Are those counted separately or as one? And what about independent tweets that have exactly the same content (tweet text + link)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | davhad0 -
.GOV Link - same impact on my site's rankings whether link to home or Gov related category?
I own a job site and I am about to get a link from a .GOV. My site has a category called "State Jobs". Should I ask the ".Gov" to link to my homepage or to the state job page and use the anchor text "State Jobs". I understand "State Jobs" page would get a big kick by that being the anchor text and linking to that specific page, but the question I have is this: for my site as a whole (homepage and various categories) would they get around the same "push up" whether the linking is to 1) my homepage with anchor text being my site's name or 2) to the state job specific page and in this case the anchor text would be "State Jobs"? thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | knielsen0 -
Should I nofollow the links in the drop-down nav menu?
Currently we have a big drop down navigation menu with a hell of a lot of links for this site: shoesinternational.co.uk SEOmoz is complaining that pretty much all pages have too many links, around the 160 link mark. Should I think about nofollowing all or certain links on the navigation
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Creode0 -
Losing Positions
HELP!!! after implementing some changes suggested by SEOMoz Pro the only changed is that i lost some very very very dear positions. I had expected that my website would raise in position due to the changes but in fact it lost some. I live in the netherlands so i use Google NL and Bing NL for rank tracking. For some specific keywords like: kamperen bij de boer, boerderijcampings, boerencampings, Vekabo Campings, minicampings, kampeerartikelen, boerencamping frankrijk i only lost positions and thus visitors. Some of the keywords lost about 9 positions. What am i doing wrong? I do everything SEOMoz suggested including changing 301 titles on my website due to titletags with more then 70 characters and the only thing that happens is losing positions? Duplicate content is no longer an issue. No errors were found what so ever and still in stead of improving the rankings the declined. Who can help me because this is not what i expected from this program.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JarnoNijzing0