Controlling PageRank vs flat site architecture

[JeremyNelson58]

Hey all.

Here's the scenario.  I have this pretty trusted site with a relatively high PR.  The navigation menu has around 300 links.  But this is because it is a CSS menu that drills down into subcategories.

Now, would restricting the amount of links in this menu be beneficial?  I am not worried about any subcategory pages not being crawled or indexed, but I am concerned that subcategory pages will not receive as high of PageRank if they are not linked to directly from the home page, thereby lowering the ranking potential.  Even with new pages that are created they receive a PR of 5 if linked to from the home page.

But I'm also thinking that toning down the menu size would be beneficial by funneling more PageRank to category pages and increasing the likelihood of ranking for some core head/middle terms.

I have seen sites that externalize the menu in JavaScript files and disallow it in Robots.txt to prevent too much PageRank from linking out, but SEO isn't really a one-solution-fits-all in my experience.

I may try a test.  Externalizing the menu may also increase the relevance for pages because I won't have a bunch of other content on the page not relevant to that page's specific keywords.

Anyone with experience in this arena?  I would love to hear your input.

Thanks

[flowsimple]

I'm sure you're well versed in how Page Rank works, but some times it's good to have someone else explain it with a metaphor. And what comes to mind is Ian's old post on this here:

http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2010/09/pagerank-without-math.htm

Following his line of thought on the subject, I'd say yes overall restricting the amount of links in the menu will be beneficial. Some of your sub-sub pages may lose some PR value, but it will also likely increase the PR value of your main pages, and give you a good chance of ranking higher for more competitive keyword terms.