Does on page links have an effect on SERP rankings with PANDA

[Brother22]

I have been doing some competitive analysis basing my company on others and have noticed a pattern. Very high ranking sites seem to have limited the internal and external on page links on their subdomains to under 100. my site has a lot of links but all are relevant and lead to unique content.

I am interested to know if anyone else has noticed this pattern in changes in the SERP results. bIs google now penalizing pages with to many on site nav links? And if a full site restructure is needed to allow google to index and rank these pages or if a it is a non issue and does not need to be addressed.

Panda confuses me!!!!! HELP!

[RyanKent]

Hi Jake.

Links on a page are what allow page rank to flow throughout your site. The full details are extremely long and complex involving advanced math, technical patents and more fun. If you want to look at some of the details here is a link: http://www.sirgroane.net/google-page-rank/

I should also clarify this issue has no direct relationship to Panda. There can be some indirect relation based on how you present the links, but the number of links on a page is a foundational SEO factor.

At a high level, each link you offer to a page is an indicator of it's importance. If your website has 200 pages and you provide a link to all 200 pages from your home page, you are saying every page of your site has equal importance. This is generally a bad approach and will lead to poor SEO performance.

If you were to offer a "cars" website, there are some makes and models which are very popular, and others which are unpopular. I have not done any research but I imagine cars like Ford Mustangs, Chevy Corvettes and similar flashy models are more popular topics for discussions then a Chrysler Lebaron or other models. From your home page I would suggest a link to each car manufacturer, then a link block of "Popular cars" which links to the mustang and corvette pages. This method allows your PR to flow to your most important pages. It is a solid SEO tactic.

As a general rule, you should minimize your links on a page to what is necessary or helpful. You are damaging your site's SEO by trying to link to everything. It is what I would refer to as "link stuffing". Every additional link you add to a page weakens all the other links on the page.