Excessive Internal Linking...But it's a product page. What to do?

[DevonIntl]

A few of our companies sites' product pages have the warning about excessive internal links. But these pages are product pages (for example). Should we be worried about this warning? Are there ways to avoid it? Or is it just the nature of the beast...? Thanks in advance!

[BobbyR]

This is a tough one that I too have to deal with when it comes to ecommerce. Here are a couple of thoughts that I implemented to avoid warning issues (too many internal links and duplicate information).

1.  Change your navigation, perhaps start with Call Center Cubicles as your primary nav button with a drop down or dynamic links that are by configuration.  This way, the customer is taken directly to that cubicle and size;

2.  Have one page conveying the call center cubicles - which has some keyword rich content. Then, show the images of various cubicles (slide show) and at download Quote button have a drop down of the various sizes to choose from which will allow the purchaser to choose.  If they see the initial picture, they don't necessarily need to see the image of what they bought - if they already saw it in your images.  BTW, if you alt tag each image - make each image unique. (Don't use Call Center Cubicle 3X2.extenstion, Call Center Cubicle 5X2.extension). Try something like C1_3X2.img, C2_4X2.img, etc. Or something creative.

I had the same problem with a e-commerce company that has a primary product that comes in a variety of colors, they wanted the product to be shown in every color - they were getting pinged for duplicate content because they were using the same product name and image over and over but, just adding the color in the description.

Remember you have a primary product - you can be creative in how it comes - size, color, etc...use that information to populate basic elements such as drop-down, radio buttons, check boxes. They are important for the order but, not necessarily important from a SEO perspective.

For the owners, CMO recommend to goal of the site is to keep it light, fast and engaging for the customer - when they can point and click what they want, it assures them that they will get what they expect.

Let me know if that helps1

[firstconversion]

I would not be concerned. There is no hard rule as to number of links, the SEOmoz tools reports it as such but dont believe it. If it makes sense for navigation for your users and isn't crazily over the top, then it will be fine

Btw why wouldn't you use a single "view 2x3 details" button instead of putting each link twice?

[DevonIntl]

I'm not sure; I didn't design the site and only came on to the project recently. Do you mean (for example) how the 3×2-39″ H is hyperlinked but there is also a "view details" button?

[firstconversion]

Yes. They both go to the same page?