Web Design - Text links better than drop down menus?

[Berner]

Hello

So with reading a blog post by Bruce Clay - http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/seo-friendly-web-design/

It reads that it Is best for seo to use text links instead of drop down menus.

So I just wanted to ask you opinion.

[JaneCopland]

Hi,

If you configure your drop-down menus for SEO by using the correct CSS technique (i.e. the links appear on the page but are activated with a hover, which I am sure you're referring to), this is fine for SEO purposes. Best to avoid hundreds and hundreds of links in drop-down menus (they can get cumbersome and bad for usability, and dilute the passed authority). If it's best for usability to have a huge drop-down but link numbers are concern, some sites use JavaScript for links that aren't important for SEO on "mega menus".

As a basic rule though, you will not suffer by having some navigational links in CSS-led drop downs.

[Berner]

Thank you for your valuable insights.

I have a lot to learn

[Travis_Bailey]

If you're thinking strictly about how 'link juice' flows through a page, then yes - static links are the way to go. But you also have to ask yourself how easy it is for someone to find and click the links. The site still has to be usable. So yes, static text links are generally best - but one can still mess that up as well.

The page you mentioned has some pretty good points regarding basic UI/UX. If you do static links properly, more or less what was discussed in the article, you'll reduce page rank fragmentation and present a better experience. What's not to like?

If you're designing for multiple devices, functionality that calls for navigational hover actions isn't the best idea. So there's another point against drop down navigation. Also, if you look at this site, you'll notice there isn't a whole lot of drop down happening until you get to search functionality and tools.