Some sites like bbc.co.uk place the most important category links at the bottom of the page while other sites will place the whole site map there. What are the benefits (or not) of both approaches?
-
Placing site category links bottom of pages.
-
If I were to put a site map at the bottom of a page, I would not list every single page but only the most important category and page links, along with the links required for legal purposes. You don't want footer links to drain your page of link juice, nor overwhelm your page design. What's more, placing a ton of the same links on every single page of a site is definitely considered spammy these days.
For news sites, yes, the lead story should be the first thing a user sees. For most other sites, though, a few links in a well-designed top nav bar should be placed near the top of the page or directly underneath a branded banner.
-
I think examples like the BBC are bad to look at their layout strategy. They are too credible for Google to punish for placement. You and me on the other hand, aren't credible enough to play those games.
-
What CMS are you using? It might be that you need to get someone to do some code editing for you?
Regards,
Andy
-
Agree, wouldn't put links above content. What I see is that links are put at the bottom of each page. My issue is that my CMS won't allow me to edit my links so I put all sections or none as I can not edit individual links out.
-
I think you will find for the BBC that they are more interested about getting the content up there first, rather than just categories. And I have to agree with why they do this.
There is no point in a visitor coming to your website and just seeing half a page of links before they get to the content itself. For the user experience, this would be a bad move. Not sure there are really any times I can say having a huge list of links above the content is a good move.
Regards,
Andy
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
-
How to deal with Pages not present anymore in the site
Hi, we need to cut out from the catalog some destinations for our tour operator, so basically we need to deal with destination pages and tour pages not present anymore on the site. What do you think is the best approach to deal with this pages to not loose ranking? Do you think is a good approach to redirect with 301's these pages to the home page or to the general catalog page or do you suggest another approach? tx for your help!
Technical SEO | | Dreamrealemedia0 -
Deleteing old page and passing on link strenth?
We are a printing company and thinking over bringing our products down to 2 - 3 rather than the 10+ we currently have, the pages we will be getting rid of will be pages such as flyers, booklets etc and just concentrating on banners and stickers would you suggest 301ing the pages to the home page or picking pages for them to go to? Also could we expect a decent raise for the pages we are left with? Thanks shaun
Technical SEO | | BobAnderson0 -
Redirecting a single page on a separate domain to a new site?
My client started a subdivision of their company, along with a new website. There was already an individual page about the new product/topic on the main site, but recognizing a growth area they wanted to devote an entire site to the product/topic. Can we/should we redirect that page on the old corporate/main site to the new domain, or just place a link or two? Thoughts?
Technical SEO | | VTDesignWorks0 -
Will it make any difference to SEO on an ecommerce site if they use their SSL certificate (https) across every page
I know that e-commerce sites usually have SSL certificates on their payment pages. A site I have come across is using has the https: prefix to every page on their site. I'm just wondering if this will make any difference to the site in the eyes of Search Engines, and whether it could effect the rankings of the site?
Technical SEO | | Sayers1 -
Product category paging
Hi, My product categories have 2-3 pages each. I have paging implemented with rel=next and rel=prev. from some reason Google GWT now reports the pages as having duplicate titles and description. Should I be worried? Should I set a different title like "blue category - page x" ? Thanx, Asaf
Technical SEO | | AsafY0 -
Blog Categories or Static Pages
Background: We're creating a site that for a service provider on a wordpress platform, and it will include a blog with a page for each service category. Let's say the client is a wedding photographer we'd create a page for studio portraits, events, wedding, newborns, family etc. Question: Should each category page be a stand-alone page or a blog category? As a blog category it will be updated with new content continually and automatically. However, it could cause duplicate content issues as well as keyword dilution. Research: I've done research and obviously there are conflicting opinions - skip categories altogether, categories bring traffic, problems & solutions. I'm hoping for your opinion on the matter, or direction to content on the issue that will be helpful. Blog categories yay or nay?
Technical SEO | | 5225Marketing0 -
Site Navigation leads to "Too Many On-Page Links" warning
I run an ecommerce site with close to 2000 products. Nearly every page in the catalog has a too many on-page links error because of the navigation sidebar, which has several flyout layers of nested links. What can/should I do about this? Will it affect my rankings at all? Thanks
Technical SEO | | AmericanOutlets0 -
What Are The Page Linking Options?
Okay, so I'm working with a site that has pretty good domain authority, but the interior pages are not well linked or optimized. So, it ranks for some terms, but everything goes to the home page. So, I'd like to increase the authority of the interior pages. The client is not wild about spreading targeted juice via something like a footer. They also don't like a "Popular Searches" style link list. The objection is that it's not attractive. They currently use cute euphemisms as the linking text, so like "cool stuff" instead of "sheepskin seat covers." In that made up example, they'd like to rank for the latter, but insist on using the former. What about a slide show with alt text/links? Would that increase the authority of those pages in a term-targeted kinda way? Are there other options? Does it matter how prominent those links are, like footers not as good as something higher up the page? They currently use a pull-down kind of thing that still results in some pages having no authority. Do bots use that equally well? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | 945010