Should I worry about limiting link count on product listing/category pages?
-
I've noticed that my link count is high (165ish for some) on my category listing pages. I've been scouring my page to see if there's any way that I can reduce the link count without restricting functionality to the end user.
Each product listing on the category page has 5 links currently:
- A link to the product in the title
- A link to the product from the image
- An 'add to compare' link
- An 'add to cart' link
- An 'add to wishlist' link
When the customer chooses to show 30 products per page, the link tally goes off the scale. So I have two questions:
Firstly - is it appropriate to keep link count down in this scenario? To elaborate - is it just inevitable that product listing pages will have lots of links, and should I just assume that Google knows this and forget about these warnings.
Secondly - There are two links to the same page (the title and image links to the product page). Does SEOmoz include this in the link count, and more importantly, will Google take heed of these when deciding whether the page is too link-heavy?
-
I'm sorry Simon but you have reached the extent of my knowledge on the topic. Many things can only be answered by a Google employee...who can't answer because of a non-disclosure agreement.
Our sources of Google info are primarily Matt Cutts, official Google announcements and the occasional response shared by a Google employee on their forums.
I would agree with you that Google is quite capable or reading and executing javascript if they want to. I plan to perform a lot of various testing in the future and this sounds like a good candidate. In the mean time, I'd welcome any additional knowledge or experience others can share on this topic.
-
Thanks for the thorough response Ryan.
I've changed the add-to links to onclick=setLocation(). It seems logical to separate the 'functional' elements of a website from the content elements.
I've read some differing opinions about the use of Javascript instead of HTML, with some people suggesting that Google is just as capable of reading Javascript syntax. Whilst I'm sure that's true, it seems like a pretty rational way of distinguishing between content and function, and I'm curious to know whether Google makes that distinction, and whether it's considered standard best-practice to separate your linking methods in this way...?
-
Thanks Stephen, I've seen some of the debate, but I'm more curious what sort of strategy is best for ecommerce sites specifically, where many of the links serve as functions rather than content links (as Ryan mentions below). Any pointers?
-
Is it just inevitable that product listing pages will have lots of links, and should I just assume that Google knows this and forget about these warnings.
When you offer 165 links on the page, they all receive the same link juice, adjusted for where they appear on the page (i.e. header, footer, navigation) and with the idea the links at the top of the page are probably given more value then links lower on the page. To this end, it has nothing to do with what Google knows, and more with how you view the importance of your pages.
One possible idea. Can the "add to" links be presented in another format to where the links were not counted by Google? Add to cart, add to wishlist, add to compare don't seem to add any value to search engines. Perhaps they can be presented in a block together and not presented as links. As for the specific method, you can use encoded javascript or other options. I suggest speaking with a programmer on this topic.
Normally I don't endorse methods to hide links but these aren't links in the traditional sense. The user is not going anywhere but instead triggering an action. When a user clicks on a product link, that is a link in the traditional sense they are taken to a new page on your site. When a user clicks on one of the "add to" buttons, the user remains on the same page and an action is performed. If you do go with the javascript method, keep in mind any adjustments necessary for analytics tracking of actions.
There are two links to the same page (the title and image links to the product page). Does SEOmoz include this in the link count, and more importantly, will Google take heed of these when deciding whether the page is too link-heavy?
SEOmoz will count every link regardless of whether it is to the same target or not. No one knows for sure how Google handles the situation. Opinions on this topic vary. Over time I have seen theories going each way. We know for sure Google only associates anchor text with the first link to a target page. The weighting factors involved with multiple links are open to speculation.
-
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
-
Authority from Linking Root Domains: youtube.com / wikipedia.org / adobe.com
Hi there, Presently doing competitor analysis and note two competitors who have a way higher 'moz domain authority' than my client. Using moz tools I notice their top 5 linking root domains all have a score of 100. Refer to screen shot. Of note, both list youtube.com and _wikipedia.org. _ Similarly, my client's domain is ALSO linked from their user profile on youtube.com. They also have a published wiki page with their URL linked. BUT, youtube.com or wikipedia.org are not listed in their "top 5 linking root domains". Their highest scoring linking root domain is prweb.com - with a score of 97. If my client has links on these top domains why would they not be listed in my client's top five domains list like they are listed in their competitors top five? Researching for reasons I came across this old post (2009) here - http://moz.com/blog/followed-links-from-four-unexpected-sources - and wonder if the competitor's links are 'followed' links - even though all resources suggest wiki and youtube are definitely 'no follow' links? Other interesting "Top 5" domains that are listed for my competitors as top "linking root domains" are microsoft.com, adobe.com and europa.eu - again, refer to screenshot. Questions are IF these top linking root domains are in fact 'followed' links/valuable links and help with domain authority scores calculated by the moz tool then 1) HOW do I get these links to show/provide the same value? AND 2) How are my competitors, who are simply travel products, getting links from top domains like adobe.com? I do hope all the above makes sense and that I'm using/interpreting the moz comparative tool correctly! Cheers iGe864i.jpg?1
Moz Pro | | catherineh0 -
Sudden increase in on-page links
Within one week, the site crawl shows my on-page links going from ~10 to ~100+ Does anyone know of a rational reason for this? Sucuri shows my site is clean, so I don't think it's a hack. 10 seems too low to begin with anyway. Any ideas? Thanks 🙂
Moz Pro | | pupstar0 -
When will links appear
When will links appear? Hi I submitted one of our products to a range of beauty bloggers and all of the reviews came back, really positive, along with links to our site. However when I run a back link report in open site explorer only one of these links is showing up even though the links all went live at about the same time. Can any one explain this in discrepancy?
Moz Pro | | Hardley10 -
Is there a report I can run to get a list of all pages indexed by Google for my website?
I want to get a CSV file of all the pages that are indexed by Google and other search engines so I can create and .htaccess file of 301 redirects
Moz Pro | | etraction0 -
How to recover from penguin hit for my site http://rndegrees.net
My site http://rndegrees.net hit by penguin and after that I worked on cloud tag and one duplicate page content which was present on my site, also I worked on back links though my site hasn't recovered yet. Please guide me if I missed on something to recover from penguin hit.
Moz Pro | | HQP0 -
How to Link build for our site
Hello, A client of mine has a site that gives advice to people. It's moderately competitive. It's a content site. Using Open Site explorer, I looked up competitor's top pages and backlinks, and there were things such as sites that were heavy on directories, sites heavily on editorial mension, sites on juicy topics that I don't want to cover, and the rest was pretty much junk. Just so that you know, I only link build with quality websites that look strong, long term, have a nice design, are high quality, and are not a directory (with a few exceptions) What's the standard way to link build with a site like this? We've got 7 articles of good content that is from me spending hours learning about the subject and using my skills as a life coach. Right now I'm just adding quality content and social media. I am not a top expert in the field, but I'm learning as much as possible. How do we link build?
Moz Pro | | BobGW0 -
Http://lsapi.seomoz.com pop up
I am getting this pop up on every page I visit: A username and password are being requested by http://lsapi.seomoz.com. The site says: "SEOmoz" I've searched some forums and see that others are experiencing it as well. The advice was to log into my seomoz account, however that did not work...any ideas?
Moz Pro | | texmeix0