Best On-Site Internal Linking Practices?
-
Hi everyone,
Our company works extensively with ecommerce website, and we're beginning to wonder with all of the impending Google updates what our best bets for internal linking practices will be, in particular when it comes to menu options. We typically set up our navigation with top-level categories in the main menu, then drop downs to the sub-category level pages. Our question is, should the links in the drop-down menus be followed, and if so, should they be followed links across all pages of the website, or just on the homepage menu list, or not at all?
We're trying to figure out what will pass the most internal linking power without being too much and overly "spammy," I guess.
Thanks for your input!
-
Thanks so much for the input, everyone. Really appreciate all of your opinions. We'll do some experimenting with the navigation layout as per your recommendations and see how we can make it work for us!
Thanks again, guys!
-
Takeshi is right, James- you gain nothing by adding nofollow to internal links. In addition, if you attract attention with a lot of it, you could even incur a penalty. Matt Cutts has stated more than once that nofollowing internal links isn't advisable, except perhaps in limited special circumstances, such as to a contact form or privacy policy. If you get carried away with internal nofollow, it could look like you're trying to sculpt pagerank, and that could cause you problems you don't want to have.
-
Again, you don't want to nofollow your internal links. Nofollowing your links has no positive impact, and just prevents any link value from flowing to your internal pages.
If you have a particularly large category structure, one thing you may want to try is limiting the links in your drop-downs to the top subcategories. Even if you have 10 different menus with 20 different subcategories each, chances are 80% of your users are only selecting 20% of the links (or less). Install a site tracker such as CrazyEgg or Clciktale to figure out which links your users actually use, and eliminate the ones that don't get many clicks.
So your navigation would look something like this:
Automobiles
Tires
Oil
Batteries
Accessories
More Auto Products -
Have you tried turning the drop down off and running a test to see how your goals compare? Or even if just the pages / visit etc.. drop.
-
We do have that implemented on some sites...but for others, we prefer the drop-down feature for easier navigation on the user end. So when a user hovers over the top-level category, the sub-category options appear below it, so less clicking through to a number of different pages - users can go straight to the sub-category they're looking for straight from the homepage. I guess these are really the links we're curious about - the sub-category links in the drop-down menus...to follow or not to follow?
Thanks for all of your input so far - much appreciated!!
-
Having just the top level categories in the main menu like you said is a good option. No need to overload the users with too many choices. Then once the user is in a specific category, the sidebar nav can show navigation links for subcategories.
-
The only issue I think we would run into with this is that some of our catalogs get rather large, and we don't want to have too MANY on-page links. We know that having no-follow links won't cause more link power to flow to other links, but we're wondering what would be the best, most efficient, most powerful way to handle a large catalog without overloading the links on each page...
-
Ooops, I'd done this on my own site.
We had a menu linking to all pages on every page. I tried limiting this but the design of the site put some limitations on me, so I implemented rel=nofollow on some internal pages....
I think now I'll go remove them.....
-
Nofollowing a link does not cause more link power to flow to your other links, it just causes that link juice that would have gone to that page to "evaporate", resulting in a loss of link equity. In general, you NEVER want to nofollow your own pages.
As far as internal linking for ecommerce sites goes, I generally look to amazon.com & overstock.com for good site architecture and good ecommerce SEO in general.
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
-
On-Page / Site Optimization+Link Building -check help!
HI all, have also Question One, i don't understand how is this website : competitor website http://hack-clash-royale. com/ beter them my website i analze i have more more backlink and my website is strong have good seo but not on first position, you can tell me what is problem, my website is 4-5# and competitor 1-2# .. thanks
Link Building | | Fahad5Saleem0 -
Setting up a separate site for link building
We are jump starting a link building campaign for a personal injury law firm. We're planning on doing things right with earning links to content people will actually want to share, sponsoring local events, etc. We're a little worried that some good opportunities could be missed due to the fact some people have assumptions about personal injury lawyers and would be hesitant to link to us simply because of our injury, regardless of what we're trying to share/promote. One solution we're considering is creating a foundation associated with the firm that supports relevant causes and provides the public with educational resources. That might get over our branding hurdle a bit. We've also discussed setting up a separate site for the foundation and actually building links to it rather than our main site, then linking the foundation site to our main site. The hope would be that we could get more links to the foundation site and it would in turn pass on link juice to our main site. My concern is whether this strategy makes any sense. We'd be putting good content on this foundation site rather than our main site. How much link juice would actually be passed on to our main site in this case? Would so much be lost that it would negate the whole purpose?
Link Building | | LeeAbrahamson1 -
What are the best guest blog sites around?
Im not talking outreach software or anything like that but more along the same lines of myblogguest. Id like to know which ones you have actually used and your opinion, there are tons of them out there but most are spammy cr+p
Link Building | | therealmarkhall0 -
Best Way To Set Up Link Structure
I have set up each page on my site to be a landing page as it were . Employing a couple of concepts one of which being that I do not want the user to browse away from the page to a page that has no contact form on it . I would in fact prefer as most landing page companies seem to agree that the user stay on the page where they land and contact me through the form . I currently have a page called my domain/links that displays a superfish Joomla menu that I have not styled or done anything with really because I only use it to access the pages while editing and have no real intention of a user Actually finding the page . I intend on eventually deleting it . Most of the pages on the site are directed towards geographical cities in the surrounding area . The pages are not duplicate content obviously but they are all speaking pretty much the same message to my audience . Hey this company does electrical work in your town . I have no problem with putting a text link menu at the bottom of the page before the footer with all of the pages on the site . However this being a content management site I could simply put this at the bottom of every page . Should I do this ? Or should I put this only on the home page and then have all the other pages link back to the homepage . Or should I do a hybrid of this and put them all on the home page and then on the other pages put Four or five links to different services that we do such as recessed lighting , under cabinet lighting , get a quote . Pages such as this that I actually want the user to possibly browse to Such as in a traditional website model . I am a firm believer that keeping the person on this page Leads to higher conversions . However visually speaking the opportunity to fill out the form is there on every page . There are many things to consider so I would like a few professional opinions . Thanks ! PS Merchant circle has been getting some negative press lately . I have a blog there that has a great page ranking . Previously I was copying a version of my text links and posting it at the bottom of my blogs . Is merchant circle still in good staining and a good bet for links ? opinions comments thank you !
Link Building | | SEOJunkie671 -
Best link research tool
I'm looking at packages to help with link finding, outreach, acquisition and management. But I'd appreciate some views from fellow forum members on the best choice; BuzzStream Link-Assistant Link Research Tools Other? BuzzStream looks pretty promising to me. Has anyone else got any experience or views? Thanks
Link Building | | PeterAlexLeigh0 -
Links from .edu sites
I have a band website and was thinking of making some link bait pages specifically designed to get links from high page rank music colleges and then funnel that page rank to my landing pages on my band site. I am planning on finding out what these colleges link to and create great information on pages on my site that the high page rank college websites will link to thereby boosting my trust and authority. How much will the trust and authority boost my site in the search engines? Because the colleges will be music colleges they should be relevant to my band site. Does this sound like a good strategy? Take care, Ron
Link Building | | Ron100 -
When rebuilding a site, when should you start building links?
We are in the process of completely rebuilding our web presence. We went ahead and started a blog using Hubspot while we are redesigning everything and writing all new content. The new site will be live in early August. The question is when do we start making a big push with Linkbuilding? I am currently trying to promote the Blog but I'm wondering about linkbuilding for the rest of the site? Do we wait until the new site is live or do we start doing it now? The new site will be completely different from the old site?
Link Building | | emcadoo0 -
Should You Avoid Links from Sites with Big Difference Between PR and MozRank?
If a site has a Google toolbar PR of 2 and a Mozrank of 5, does that most likely mean that the site is penalized and a link would probably provide little value. I know that Google rarely updates toolbar PR so I suppose the site could have also earned a lot of quality links since the last update. Thanks Mozzers!
Link Building | | SparkplugDigital0