Will a mega menu on all pages dilute the link juice?

[rasmusbang]

On our web site (http://www.betxpert.com) we have a mega menu with quite a lot of links in it. I am getting warnings in SEOmoz saying we have far to many links in our pages. But a lot of pages have large menus with a lot of links - are all pages punished for this then?

My primary question is: Since the menu is on all pages, the pages linked in the menu will have a link in from all of our pages (200K+ pages) and a lot of these do not have a good ranking. So what I want to know is if the pages linked in the menu will have lower ranking because of the many links in - or is this a good thing?

Should I consider setting "nofollow" for som of the links on other pages than the homepage (since this is the page with the best rank)?

[RyanKent]

The Stackoverflow site is likely a very bad example to try and follow for two main reasons. First off, it has millions of links and is the #105 most trafficked site in the world. Does your site have similar stats?

Also, it is a forum site. In many senses, a site is a site, but you also need to consider business models. I have used Stack Overflow for years, but today is the first time I have ever been to the site's home page. Would that be ok for your site?

You mention their home page does not hinder usability? I disagree. If you offer 100 links on a page, some people still struggle to locate the right link. When you offer 700 links on a page, many users will be lost.

In short, stackoverflow has a good business model but you will likely not be happy with your SEO results if you attempt to emulate their home page.

[AlanMosley]

Depending on how much link juice a page has, really rules how many links it can have.

link juice of a page is split between its links. Each link passes 85% of its link juice, this is so link juice does not flow for ever and stops eternal loops
but even losing 15% link juice as link juice passes though links it will never reach 0, as there with always be 85% left, so at some stage link juice becomes too small to pass on and is discarded.

so to get back to my point, if you have too many links it may be that you have split link juice so small that it is discarded and not passed.

Also it would seem that Bing will only index so many links

http://thatsit.com.au/seo/reports/violation/the-page-contains-too-many-hyperlinks

So usability is really secondary

[staingurus]

What about in the case of tags? Can you speak to this? Look at the home page of Stackoverflow... Tons of links, and most of them are tags for questions. They do not hinder usability at all, and yet a site will still suffer in SEO/indexation because of this?

[staingurus]

What about in the case of tags? Can anyone speak to this? Look at the home page of Stackoverflow... Tons of links, and most of them are tags for questions. They do not hinder usability at all, and yet a site will still suffer in SEO/indexation because of this?

[RyanKent]

You presently have 348 links on your home page. It is far too many.

You are welcome to keep those links, but it will likely be a poor user experience and your search results will be negatively impacted as well.

If I operated your current site I would redesign it in such a manner so there were under 100 links on your home page. If there are 120 or 140, that can work fine. 348 is far too many, especially for a site with DA of 31.

[rasmusbang]

Thanks for the replies in this thread. I've reduced the homepage to about 300-350 links now. That should give me some affect one should think.

[AlanMosley]

The number of links on your home page seem too many, but if you have that same menu on every page then I would worry.

You want to try to get a flat as posible linking structure, without losing user exprience. You want as many pages linking to your landing pages, and few to your non ranking pages.

i have a simple tutorial explaining of how page rank flows, hope it explains a little.

http://perthseocompany.com.au/seo/tutorials/a-simple-explanation-of-pagerank

[rasmusbang]

Hi Atul,

You go to analytics, and go to "Content". There you find "In-Page Analysis". I just tried it today. Really cool

You can check for several types of users, and see how many of your links have been clicked by over 0%, 0,01% and so on. In this way you can locate the links which are not clicked at all.

[seoug_2005]

Hi Ryan,

"You can use Google Analytics or other tools to determine which links are not used"

Would you please clarify about doing link analysis using GA ?.

Thanks

[RyanKent]

Correct.

You will be choosing to flow link juice to your more important pages.

You can use Google Analytics or other tools to determine which links are not used. In most cases, footer links are seldom used. If you were to perform a link analysis of your home page you will likely find only a small percentage of those links are actually used. While you are familiar with your site imagine being a first time visitor to the site and trying to find the right link out of a list of 700+.

[rasmusbang]

So can i conclude, that the high number of links in my menu and footer actually dilutes the link juice for all link (on all pages). If i trim the number of links I should see a better passing of rank value throughout my website?

[RyanKent]

But our link count has been this high for a long time.

Are you happy with your site's current SEO performance? If so, there is no need to change. If you wish to improve your site's SEO, I would suggest your link structure is a major issue.

So you are telling me, that if i decrease the link count my page will have a higher authority?

No. Your authority remains the same whether you have 1 link or 1000. The difference is how that authority is distributed throughout your site.

The concept of optimization is about prioritizing. You want the most link juice to go to the most important pages such as your money page, official interviews, and the most popular articles.

The trimming of links is most important on the homepage or should this be done on each and every page?

It should be done of every page. It is more important on the home page, but it affects every page.

[rasmusbang]

But our link count has been this high for a long time.

So you are telling me, that if i decrease the link count my page will have a higher authority?

The trimming of links is most important on the homepage or should this be done on each and every page?

[RyanKent]

Should I consider setting "nofollow" for some of the links on other pages than the homepage?

Definitely not. When you nofollow a link, you do not save any link juice. You stop the link juice of flowing to the link but it does not flow to other links on your page.

The idea of optimizing your links is to step back and take a fresh look at your links and question whether they are all truly necessary and helpful. Your home page presently offers over 700 links. You really need to cut your link count to less then 100.

The primary recommendation is to provide links to the main category pages, but not all the subcategories. For example you have a Bookmaker link on your home page, then list out 25 different bookmakers. Instead simply link to the Bookmaker page and offer the bookmaker links there. Apply this process to all your categories.

The New York Times is about the most packed home page of links a site can reasonably offer, then their link count is half of yours. They can support having that many links because their DA is 100, the maximum possible for a web site, whereas your DA is 31. You really need to find a way to get under 100 links. If you do not make a change, your rankings and site indexation will suffer.